Best-selling author Tyvian Jones has a life of leisure in Venice, Italy, until he has a chance encounter with sultry Frenchwoman Eva Olivier. He falls for her instantly, despite already having wedding plans with Francesca Ferrara. Winning Eva's affection proves elusive; she's more interested in money than in love. But Tyvian remain steadfast in his obsession, going after Eva with a fervor that threatens to destroy his life.
Jeanne Moreau Stanley Baker Giorgio Albertazzi James Villiers Virna Lisi Riccardo Garrone Lisa Gastoni Checco Rissone Enzo Fiermonte Nona Medici Roberto Paoletti Alexis Revidis Evi Rigano John R. Pepper Van Eicken Peggy Guggenheim Gilda Dahlberg Nicky Amey Vittorio De Sica Ignazio Dolce Joseph Losey Enrico Maria Salerno
Ева, Eve, Εύα, 伊娃, 에바
France
Italy
Germany
USA
USA
France
Germany
Italy
USA
Must french films be "good"? Is it not enough to have Jeanne Moreau call her boyfriend a loser because he didn't give her all the money she wanted, huge?
Conflicted feelings about this one! I didn't really care much at all about the overall plot and the characters' motivations for any of their actions often seemed nonexistent. Nevertheless, Moreau carries out her boringly-written role much better than one could ever hope for, bringing some elegance into it.
From a visual and technical standpoint this was exquisite: close to perfect b/w imagery and a charming directional style. A real showcase of Losey's talent in that sense, I just wish the script would be more thought-out, right now it mostly felt like a bland attempt at something existentially deeper.
There's no denying that Jeanne Moreau is absolutely electrifying in this; so cruel, withering, powerful and gorgeous that she has every right to be a cocktease. Unfortunately, Stanley Baker, as her deluded paramour, is woefully miscast. He may work in actioners but he's hardly a romantic leading man. It appears that Joseph Losey thought by simply imitating the wealthy, bored milieus of LA NOTTE and LAST YEAR AT MARIENBAD he'd somehow make something to equal them. Hardly. Although Venice looks lovely, as it always does.
How do I ennui? Let me count the ways.
Tony Lane’s New Yorker review of A Haunting in Venice reminded me that I had seen Joe Losey’s Venice-set Eva only once. I hated it the first time, but with Jeanne Moreau and Virna Lisi, how bad could it be? Oh, well. Joe, baby, you’re supposed to be examining ennui, not causing it.
“You’re not a man. You’re a loser.”
Eva is like a bad Antonioni imitation by someone lacking Mickey’s graceful style. Stanley Baker’s Tyvlan Jones is unsympathetic from the first, and we don’t care what happens to him. We just hope he doesn’t cause others too much distress. No such luck.
The only virtues of Eva are seeing Moreau…
In which Joseph Losey tries on Michelangelo Antonioni's cinematic clothes - even borrowing the Italian's frequent cinematographer (Gianni Di Venanzo) - and finds them to be a reasonably good fit..
It's not the finest film Losey ever made - that would be The Servant - but, even with a weak leading man (Stanley Baker), it's extremely watchable and, besides, Jeanne Moreau being 'Jeanne Moreau' in black and white '60's Venice and Rome will always be very, very cool.
Online Access: ok.ru/video/979184781976
I'm a big fan of Joseph Losey but this is easily the worst film I've seen by him so far.
Melodramas about writers chasing after the wrong woman have been done numerous times down the years but rarely have they been so directionless and uninspired as this. Typically for Losey, it's a stunning looking film, helped by its various Italian locations.
But the central love triangle, between Stanley Baker, Virna Lisi and Jeanne Moreau, was utterly unbelievable. It wasn't helped by the fact that the first and third elements of the triangle were a thoroughly unlikeable pair. Losey seems oblivious to the fact that he's given no hints at all why Baker would be attracted to Moreau and they make…
Fascinating as its own period knock off, but feels like Pauline Kael's attempt to prove the failure of Resnais and Antonioni "Come Dressed As the Sick Soul of Europe" by writing one of these scripts herself. That is to say, Eve is sexier and more showy than anything Antonioni made, but it's a highly obvious and empty affair. Losey—perhaps a hand for hire here? (Rosenbaum notes his original cut ran another 50 minutes, though I think this would have worked best in a tighter fashion)—swings his camera with furious rage, his kind of forte for avoiding obvious camera placement as he circles his characters into the environment like products of their time. But a lot of that camera rage feels…
I couldn't have a Stanley Baker mini-season and not revisit Eva. Masculinity, emasculation, masks – Losey's films are always such a rewarding rewatch for their details and texture.
I love Jean Moreau's introduction – gazed at by a man, smiling, then her smile dropped. The camera circling her/Baker/her/(his masculine peacocking rendered ridiculous)/steady in on her again.
I'd forgotten how funny this is – Jeanne Moreau inspecting Bakers apartment, throwing away his flowers, finding his book shelves full of only his own novel. The notion of an arty Italian production of Baker's Welsh mining novel, script written by a gay English toff, Verna Lisi as female lead. How Moreau slinks around; feline, proposterous. Baker's petulance in knocking her clothing to the…
the eternal image of jeanne moreau leisuring in the garden of eden listening to billie holiday records
There's no proper way to judge something this bafflingly hapless but Stanley Baker as Tyvian's exactly the vain dry drunk we see, early on, wearing proto-Uggs with his pajama getup that goes on to profess "What's inside doesn't count," because no one thought it could or would anyway. Fair enough. Moreau's professionally manipulative seductress Eva likes money, and she gets it because desire (horniness? obsession?) is Tyvian's foremost virtue when he literally doesn't value another one, regardless of what truth surfaces about Eva's endgame. He's an insatiable sort-of pervert and a fraud and a schmuck and deserving of bad omen and requisite consequence but, uh, what else is there besides some vaguely noirish cat-and-mouse bullshit involving the barest of impetuses, yet something has to happen? Just a loose riff on particular tropes that fails to go to the depths it's capable of.
