About María Casares

I first saw her as death in "Orphee." She galvanized me. Such intensity! I understand that she was primarily a stage actress with a tendency towards the melodramatic, according to Robert Bresson, a notorious lover of somnambulistic acting. Even so, I know of no one like her. Sometimes critics make reference to her Crawfordish fierceness. Bullshit. Crawford is a cartoon. Casares is a boiling, churning lava pit.