Eva (1962)

Synopsis: Joseph Losey (THE SERVANT) directed this forgotten masterpiece about a Welsh writer, Tyvian Jones, living in Venice and reaping the benefits of a successful novel and film career. His glamorous... Joseph Losey (THE SERVANT) directed this forgotten masterpiece about a Welsh writer, Tyvian Jones, living in Venice and reaping the benefits of a successful novel and film career. His glamorous life of Venetian estates, film festivals, and parties is rudely interrupted when a mysterious woman named Eva (Jeanne Moreau) and her escort break into his canal-side villa seeking shelter on a stormy night. Tyvian is immediately infatuated with the shriekingly blasé Eva, who greets his initial advances with a swift hit to the head with an ashtray but nevertheless proceeds to draw him in to a torturous and obsessive relationship. EVA stands as another powerful chapter in Losey's misanthropic investigations into human cruelty and irony. The melodramatic and increasingly sadomasochistic relationship that erupts between the two lovers destroys Tyvian's new marriage and exposes a panoply of betrayal and inhumanity. Moreau is devastatingly beautiful as Eva, projecting her as a damaged beauty, lazing in her glittering estate filled with trophies from past and current conquests, including her absent husband, an engineer on assignment in Africa. Losey crafts a fatalistic mad love that destroys all in its path but leaves the seemingly untouchable and loveless Eva unscathed, all played out against the smoky bohemian ambience of metropolitan Italy and scored with the tortured love songs of Billie Holiday. [More]

Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, James Villiers

Starring: Jeanne Moreau, Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi, James Villiers, Riccardo Garrone, Lisa Gastoni, Enzo Fiermonte

Director: Joseph Losey

Director: Joseph Losey
Screenwriter: Hugo Butler, Evan Jones
Producer: Raymond Hakim, Robert Hakim
Composer: Michel Legrand

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