Marguerite Duras

Baxter, Vera Baxter

Baxter, Vera Baxter

Marguerite Duras reunited with India Song collaborators Delphine Seyrig and composer Carlos d’Alessio for this hypnotically unsettling journey into one woman’s existential emptiness. Ensconced in a sprawling rental villa, the world-weary Vera Baxter (Claudine Gabay) receives visits from two women, including a mysterious stranger (Seyrig) to whom she recounts a shocking story about her marriage, the way she lives, and the reasons for her malaise. Setting her languid images to d’Alessio’s incongruously breezy, endlessly looping score, Duras fashions a quietly shattering portrait of marriage as a kind of prison.

Film Info

  • France
  • 1977
  • 95 minutes
  • Color
  • 1.66:1
  • French

Available In

Collector's Set

Two Films by Marguerite Duras

Two Films by Marguerite Duras

Blu-ray Box Set

2 Discs

$41.96

Collector's Set

Two Films by Marguerite Duras

Two Films by Marguerite Duras

DVD Box Set

2 Discs

$27.96

Baxter, Vera Baxter
Cast
Claudine Gabay
Vera Baxter
Delphine Seyrig
The unknown
Gérard Depardieu
Michel Cayre
Noëlle Châtelet
The friend
Claude Aufort
The barman
Credits
Director
Marguerite Duras
Written by
Marguerite Duras
Director of photography
Sacha Vierny
Sound
Guillaume Sciama
Script supervisor
Geneviève Dufour
Set photographer
Jean Mascolo
Editor
Dominique Auvray
Editor
Caroline Camus
Editor
Roselyne Petit
Original music
Carlos d’Alessio
Producer
Stéphane Tchal Gadjieff

Current

India Song and Baxter, Vera Baxter: In the Thrall of Duras
India Song and Baxter, Vera Baxter: In the Thrall of Duras

One of the towering figures of postwar French literature, Marguerite Duras was also an innovative filmmaker whose rarefied cinematic style dared audiences to see less and listen more.

By Ivone Margulies