Beautiful, interesting, incredible cinema.

See what’s playing
The Smiling Madame Beudet
  • Try 7 Days Free
  • Now Showing
  • MUBI GO
  • Gift MUBI
  • Film Database
  • Notebook
  • Notebook Magazine
  • MUBI Editions
  • SHOP
  • About
  • Ways to Watch
  • Students
  • Jobs
  • Terms & Privacy
7.6
/10
467 Ratings

THE SMILING MADAME BEUDET

La souriante Madame Beudet

Directed by Germaine Dulac
France, 1923
Drama, Short
  • 4141 minutes

Synopsis

Unhappy in her marriage, Madeleine Beudet escapes reality by playing the piano. One day, her husband receives tickets to the opera but Madame Beudet refuses to accompany him. Alone in their family home, her desire to escape turns into a thirst for murder…

Synopsis

Unhappy in her marriage, Madeleine Beudet escapes reality by playing the piano. One day, her husband receives tickets to the opera but Madame Beudet refuses to accompany him. Alone in their family home, her desire to escape turns into a thirst for murder…

Our take

In this prescient, visionary short, feminist-surrealist Germaine Dulac brings to life the inner turmoil of a lonely woman, caught between stifling domesticity and the wild freedoms of her imagination. A marvelous portrait of a most unhappy marriage, caught in startling and unforgettable images.