The Madwoman of Chaillot

Mad and miserable best describe Katharine Hepburn's misadventure and disaster in this 1969. At least, the great Kate, had acted mad in a far better film 10 years before in "Suddenly, Last Summer.

Lots of good comment already made except for some confusion over interpreting and understanding allegory. This is one of the best examples.

Question: In 1943 what movie starred Katherine Hepburn, Katherine Cornell, and Harpo Marx? ANSWER: STAGE DOOR CANTEEN Question: In 1969 what movie starred Katherine Hepburn, Dame Edith Evans, and Danny Kaye?

Jean Giraudoux who wrote The Madwoman Of Chaillot became a prominent French writer in the years between the two World Wars and died in 1944 a year before this play made its debut on the French stage. Those who were occupying France at the time Giroudoux died would not have wanted this item shown to be sure as it is an indictment against the greed and thoughtlessness of the modern age and the ruthless people in positions of power.

I'm in a play reading group and we often watch a movie based on a play we've read when one's available. Similarities are that a group of wealthy Parisian men find that there's oil underground in Paris and want top scatter derricks all over the city to get it.

Every Civics class (are they still teaching Civics in our increasingly more ignorant society?) should watch this and write an essay on it (if they know what one is, or what a subject and predicate is).

I was not expecting much of this movie. Unfortunately, I was not disappointed.

It all depends how you approach this film. DO NOT expect a linear plot line, either by story or history.

There is a segment within a scene almost ending the first act of "The Madwoman of Chaillot", that suggest the direction the story is going to take. While the fanciful old countess Aurelia (Katharine Hepburn) explains young Roderick (Richard Chamberlain) the joys of being alive, the visuals turn to a slightly hazy retrospection of her love life, in which Roderick is seen as her mustachioed lover Alphonse, and the waitress Irma (Nanette Newman), with whom Roderick will fall in love, is seen as Aurelia when she was younger.