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Whirlpool of Fate

1925 1h 11m Drama List
Tomatometer 3 Reviews 62% Popcornmeter Fewer than 50 Ratings
An orphan (Catherine Hessling) escapes from her cruel uncle and finds refuge with a landowner's son, but her happiness is short-lived.

Critics Reviews

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Kathy Fennessy Video Librarian Magazine [Jean Renoir] had finally arrived, and there would be no stopping him from becoming a filmmaker forever famed for his deeply humanist sensibilities and refined aesthetic sense, both qualities clearly in evidence here. Rated: 3/4 Oct 19, 2021 Full Review Sarah Boslaugh TheArtsStl You need a high tolerance for melodramatic acting to get much out of it. If you can accept the conventions of its time, however, it offers many pleasures, above all some fine naturalistic cinematography by Jean Bachelet and Alphonse Gibory. Jul 23, 2021 Full Review Dennis Schwartz Dennis Schwartz Movie Reviews Let down by a less than thrilling tale. Rated: B- Jan 1, 2011 Full Review Read all reviews

Audience Reviews

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Audience Member Jean Renoir's first solo film as director (following 1924's Une vie sans Joie) again casts his wife, Catherine Hessling, as lead. Hessling is a true silent screen movie star - her face is all exaggeration (and accentuated by make-up) - who overacts and mugs to the camera in a way that almost derails the productions she is in. As in the previous film, La Fille de l'eau shows some of the visual poetry of Renoir's camerawork - there are some wonderful shots of the waterways of France, and a brilliantly surrealistic nightmare that is the best thing in the film. It opens up well enough - the first twenty minutes, showing life on a canal boat, the death of the father, and the brutalisation of Virginia (Hessling) by her uncle. After she flees, and falls in with a petty criminal, the film begins to take on a more moralising tone and its impact is lessened. Perhaps now more of a film to be appreciated as a snapshot of a different time, and by cinema-history fans only, there are moments here that the casual viewer might appreciate. Rated 2.5 out of 5 stars 01/25/23 Full Review Audience Member Incredible suspense thriller!!! Rated 5 out of 5 stars 02/19/23 Full Review Read all reviews
Whirlpool of Fate

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Whirlpool of Fate

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Movie Info

Synopsis An orphan (Catherine Hessling) escapes from her cruel uncle and finds refuge with a landowner's son, but her happiness is short-lived.
Director
Jean Renoir
Screenwriter
Pierre Lestringuez
Genre
Drama
Runtime
1h 11m