A Year with Kate: The Madwoman of Chaillot (1969)
Wednesday, September 10, 2014 at 5:30PM
Episode 37 of 52: In which Katharine Hepburn plays another aristocrat in an odd little movie that makes no sense.
1969 was a really weird year for Kate. At age 62, she’d achieved commercial and critical success unlike any she’d experienced before. The Lion in Winter and Guess Who’s Coming To Dinner had not only earned Katharine Hepburn back-to-back Oscars, but also made her one of the top grossing stars of 1968. But as the 60s blossomed into the 70s, Kate took two very strange steps: an allegory, and a musical. Limitations be damned, she was Kate the Great, and she hadn’t had a flop in 15 years. That was about to change.
The Madwoman of Chaillot works as a curio, but not as a film. Based on a postwar French allegory, “updated” to include topical issues such as student riots and atomic power, the resulting movie is one Be In short of a bad 60s cliche. The cast is a veritable Who’s Who of Old Hollywood, New Hollywood, and Cinecitta: Katharine Hepburn is joined by Yul Brynner, Richard Chamberlain, Dame Edith Evans, Donald Pleasence, John Gavin, Danny Kaye, and Fellini muse Giulietta Masina, as well as two of Kate’s former leading men: Charles Boyer and Paul Henreid. This is great news for anyone playing Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, but unfortunately does not improve the quality of the film.
"That's the way we became the Chaillot Bunch!"
The difficulty with attempting to put over a film that tackles war, student riots, corporate greed, communism, oil drilling, corrupt government, and religion is that allegory is not well-suited to film. Jean Giraudoux’s original 1945 play paints its characters in broad stereotypes--The General, The Prospector, The Chairman, etc--against a fantastical background of “underground” Paris. Absurdist morality plays like this thrive in undefined spaces, which allow them to feel both universal and incongruous. However, film is by its nature grounded in reality. The audience expects what it sees to be, if not true to life, at least true to the world of the story. (For example, Ents in The Hobbit may be computer generated, but they fit in Middle Earth.) That isn’t to say that allegory can’t ever be filmed, but The Madwoman of Chaillot is not the movie that proves the exception to the rule.
Director Bryan Forbes (of The Stepford Wives fame) lacks much needed consistency in bringing the play to film. At times deadly serious, then suddenly fanciful, Forbes’ overarching vision is cluttered, both literally and figuratively. Both of his cinematographers, filming on location in Paris, overburden the first half of the movie with zooms, lens filters, and camera tricks, then suddenly abandon them. The sudden dodges into unreality never gel with the more quotidian setting on the streets of Paris. The result is that the large caricatures feel even more out of place, and the tone slips into heavy-handed schlock. This may be partially because Forbes was new to the project; John Huston had been slated to direct, but walked off the project two weeks before filming started.
Possibly in protest for losing her original director, Kate gives her laziest performance in over a decade. She falls back on old mannered habits and failing to connect meaningfully with either her costars or the script. (The sole exception is a brief comic scene with Dame Edith Evans.) The Countess should be a character of benevolent bedlam, but Kate plays her with unimaginative forthrightness. Unsurprisingly with so much ringing false, both for Kate and the film, The Madwoman of Chaillot was a commercial and critical failure; ending a four-film Oscar nomination streak.
No matter! Kate could try for a Tony next with Coco. Katharine Hepburn could not sing, so her decision to star in this Alan J. Lerner show is an impressive mix of chutzpah and hubris. Below is her performance at the 1970 Tony Awards (the longest in the show’s history).
Kate did not win the Tony, but she learned something else valuable. Audiences didn’t care that she couldn’t sing. Kate described their reaction as love coming “over the footlights.” After three decades, fresh from a new defeat, this improbable musical was the first time Katharine Hepburn finally felt the public was on her side.
Which do you prefer, the madwoman or “Mademoiselle?”
Previous Week: The Lion in Winter (1967) - In which if there’s only one Katharine Hepburn film you see, make it this one.
Next Week: The Trojan Women (1971) - In which even Katharine Hepburn and Vanessa Redgrave cannot save a 3,000 year old stinker.
Reader Comments (16)
The one time I watched this, and that was enough, I went by the description in the guide which said it was a quirky, unorthodox fable. Ha! Diffuse and disjointed is more like it. It barely held my interest and even with all the stars in the cast my attention drifted often. It would have been interesting to see what Huston could have done with it, he couldn't have done worst. I wonder if Kate had signed on in anticipation of his involvement and when he backed out it was too late for her to flee.
I wish this was a stand alone misstep but next week's Trojan Women isn't much better but when she starts to dabble in TV in a few weeks things brighten back up.
As far as madwoman vs. Mademoiselle goes it's Coco all the way.
I thought that poster at the top was a Photoshop joke. Yikes.
Coco all the way. Madwoman is difficult to follow in a good production, let alone a muddled one.
Elegibility year 1970 was very poor for Broadway musicals. Lauren Bacall's Applause opened actually a bit late to be eligible, but generous Hepburn was one of the many of petitioned the organizers to stretch the rules and allow the play to be nominated. The petition was granted and Hepburn lost the Tony to her close friend Betty Bacall. Quite a gesture!
What a joy to watch the Tony clip.
Oh man, I feel sorry for you. I have tried to watch this a couple of times and I just have NOT been able to get through it. Ditto for next week, sorry in advance.
But on the bright side, there are a couple of TV movies coming up that I quite like, so courage!
As for Coco, I have the CD of the show and the only song I can really listen to is NOT sung by Kate. But I don't have a problem with her "singing" which is basically poetry reading set to music. And it's perfectly okay. A three note range or thereabouts is about what Rex Harrison pulled off for years I think. :-)
There's something purely magical about seeing her perform in that Tony clip. She's got the Rex Harrison style down, just enunciating her way right through it, melody aside. I love her!
I also continue to be absolutely amazed that you find something (and something interesting!) to say about every single one of these. This will definitely stay in my back pocket when I play 6 Degrees...
...yet you deny us John Gavin in that Hollywood Squares photo collage, Anne Marie!
(That was me reaching for something to add to the conversation.)
Oh, yeah: When Angela Lansbury tackled the same role the same year in the Broadway musical adaptation Dear World, the production was a similar failure—it opened in February 1969 and closed in May and was savaged by many critics; Madwoman was released in the US that October. Still, for her performance as Countess Aurelia, Lansbury managed to get her second Tony nomination and win in a row.
You have some balls to call "The Trojan Woman" a 3.000 years old stinker. I'll wait for your "review" before i call you ignorant.
(Oh gawd, Paul Outlaw, I had the biggest crush on John Gavin. In high school, I went to a revival movie house (remember those?) to see Thoroughly Modern Millie like 18 times!)
I really dislike this movie for so many reasons; the main being I just didn't understand what the hell was going on. She was miscast. Also at 62, Kate seemed so OLD. I think of others of a similar age now, Streep, Mary McDonnell, Jane Seymour, Sigourney, Christine Baranski, who look and act so YOUNG. Maybe it's just the times we live in.
Anne Marie--you've done a phenomenal job with this series! I've enjoyed every post. Thanks so much.
Anne Marie, I am loving your column. I recently watched Morning Glory and went back to find your entry for that performance. I applaud your diligence! I hope you will give a ranking, or at least a Top 10, of Kate's best at the end!
Anne Marie, your writing is simply magnificent.
I always wondered about this film. It often shocks me how terrible or inappropriate an Oscar winner's followup frequently is--I always think of Halle Berry being in a James Bond movie after winning an Academy Award. Barbra in Hello Dolly! Of course, the next movies are already in the can before they win their awards, but it still seems crazy.
Pam, I've seen TMM at least that many times--I have a thing for Julie! AND I think it's so entertaining.
I have to confess that I can't get through Coco. I try to like it for Kate's sake, but it sounds like nails on a Bryn Mawr chalkboard to me. I basically lump it in with Bette Davis's "Whatever Happened To Baby Jane" single under Random Unfortunate Career Tidbits from my Favorite Stars.
I've never seen the Coco clip before, and I was ready to hate it after all the negative reviews I've read, however I was really impressed by Kate in this. True, I wasn't sure what the audience was finding so funny but this was Hepburn on top form. Madwoman was indeed a strange film, but after the long absence after Long Day's Journey Into Night, she seemed to be accepting everything that was thrown at her.
Absolutely no hint o a french accent! lol Her Coco is All Kate & Zilch Chanel!! lol...But a larger than life performance no doubt....its v rare she attends award ceremony, this one time she attended when she's nom, she lost....
I just discovered this movie for myself the other day! I had no idea what was going on and found myself not paying attention to any scene without Hepburn in it. It was bizarre. I did like the bits of absurd humour such as the whole bit with, "He drowned," when he never went in the water (I'm a sucker for absurdity though). I also kinda enjoyed that opening, with the...greenhouse? whatever that building was, it had the glass top shining in blue, but everything else was so red-orange golden...I had no idea what I was getting into anyway, it was just pretty.
~ K