La Proie pour l'ombre

La Proie pour l'ombre is a 1961 French drama film directed by Alexandre Astruc, starring Annie Girardot, Daniel Gélin and Christian Marquand. It is known in English as Shadow of Adultery.^[1][2] The original screenplay was written by Astruc, Claude Brulé and Françoise Sagan.^[3] The film was released on 14 April 1961. It had 620,504 admissions in France.^[4]

La Proie pour l'ombre
Theatrical release poster
Directed by	Alexandre Astruc
Written by	Alexandre Astruc Claude Brulé Françoise Sagan
Produced by	Edmond Ténoudji
Cinematography	Marcel Grignon
Edited by	Ghislaine Desjonquères Denise de Casabianca
Music by	Richard Cornu Jean-Sébastien Bach
Production companies	Les Films Marceau Cocinor
Distributed by	Marceau-Cocinor
Release date	14 April 1961 (1961-04-14)
Running time	95 minutes
Country	France
Language	French

Plot

The movie centers on the story of a woman who runs an art gallery and leaves her husband for another man, whom she eventually also becomes dependent on and leaves; the title is from the French expression lâcher la proie pour l’ombre, which literally means “to let go of the prey for the shadow”^[5], referring to Aesop's fable The Dog and Its Reflection.

Cast

• Annie Girardot as Anna Kraemmer
• Christian Marquand as Bruno
• Daniel Gélin as Eric Kraemmer
• Michèle Girardon as Anita
• Michèle Gerbier as Claudine
• Anne Caprile [fr] as Luce
• Christiane Barry as Madame Interlenghi
• Corrado Guarducci as Edoardo Interlengh

Themes

Alexandre Astruc described the main character as "a woman who feels in herself a very real need for freedom that is as much moral as social so that she sets about matching a man's work; but at the same time, because she is a woman, she feels the need to be passive, dominated, submissive."^[3]

Production

The film was produced by Les Films Marceau in collaboration with Cocinor - Comptoir Cinématographique du Nord. It was shot from 20 July to 31 August 1960.^[6]