Les Sorcières de Salem
Encyclopedia
This article is about the 1957 film. For the film by Nicholas Hytner
, see The Crucible (1996 film).
The Crucible is a 1957 joint Franco
-East German film production directed by Raymond Rouleau with a screenplay adapted by Jean-Paul Sartre from the 1953 play The Crucible
, by Arthur Miller
.
. John Proctor is the only member in the town's assembly who resists the attempts of the rich to gain more wealth on the expense of the poor farmers, thus incurring the wrath of deputy governor Danforth. Proctor's sternly puritanical wife, Elizabeth, is sick and has not shared his bed for months, and he was seduced by his maid, Abigail. When he ends his affair with her, Abigail and several other local girls turn to slave Tituba. Reverend Parris catches the girls in the forest as they partake in what appears to be witchcraft. Abigail and the rest deny it, telling that they have been bewitched. A wave of hysteria engulfs the town, and Danforth uses the girls' accusations to instigate a series of trials, during which his political enemies are accused of heresy and executed. When Abigail blames Elizabeth Proctor, the latter rejects John's pleas to defraud Abigail as an adulteress. Eventually, both Proctors are put on trial and refuse to sign a confession. The townspeople rebel, but not before John is hanged with other defendants; his pregnant wife has been spared. Elizabeth tells the angry crowd to let Abigail live.
defined as "the height of his rapprochement with the Soviet Union". He was inspired by the success of Marcel Aymé
's French-language adaptation of Miller's The Crucible, titled Les sorcières de Salem, which was staged in Paris' Sarah Bernhardt Theater
, starring Simone Signoret
as Elizabeth Proctor. Sartre later said he was moved to write his adaptation because "the play showed John Proctor persecuted, but no one knows why... His death seems like a purely ethical act, rather than one of freedom, that is undertaken in order to resist the situation effectively. In Miller's play... Each of us can see what he wants, each public will find in it confirmation of its own attitude... Because the real political and social implications of the witch-hunt don't appear clearly." The screenplay was 300 pages long. Sartre's version was different from the original play in many ways; Elizabeth save Abigail from lynching and the townspeople rise up against Thomas Danforth
, who becomes the chief antagonist.
The film was one of four major Franco-East German co-productions made during the late 1950 - the others were Till Ulenspiegel's Adventures
, Les Misérables
and Les Arrivistes. The Democratic Republic's government authorized the DEFA studio to collaborate with companies outside the Eastern Bloc in order to gain access to Western audiences, thus bypassing the limitations imposed by West Germany's Hallstein Doctrine
; eventually, they intended their films to reach also the public in the Federal Republic. The French, on their part, were interested in reducing costs by filming in East Germany. Principal photography took place in DEFA's Babelsberg Studios
from August to mid-October 1956, with additional shooting in Paris during early November.
Les Sorcières de Salem sold 1,686,749 tickets. For their appearance in it, Signoret won the 1957 BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and Mylène Demongeot
was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
in the same year. In the 1957 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
, the Best Actor Award was given to "all actors of Les Sorcières de Salem in collective, and especially to Yves Montand
."
The New York Times' critic Bosley Crowther
wrote that "out of The Crucible... Jean-Paul Sartre and Raymond Rouleau have got a powerful and compelling film... For now Mr. Miller's somewhat cramped and peculiarly parochial account... comes forth as a sort of timeless drama... This is a persistently absorbing film." The Time magazine's reviewer commented that "Witches of Salem is a foredoomed but fascinating attempt... But it hardly helps the scriptwriter's case... When he sums the whole story up as an early American instance of class warfare."
Michel Contat and Michel Rybalka, who edited and annotated Sartre's writings, noted that he introduced a strong element of communist class struggle
into his adaptation of Miller's play, especially by turning Danforth from merely sanctimonious to a calculated villain who pulls the strings behind the trial, while making the character of Abigail more complex and consequently, almost sympathetic. In the introduction to the 2010 edition of The Crucible, editor Susan C. W. Abbotson described the film's plot as a "conflict between capitalists and heroic Marxists", writing that "Miller felt the Marxist references were too heavy-handed. Most critics agreed." Abbotson also commented that "Sartre changed the play's theme... His version becomes despiritualized... As it desires to present us the heroic representatives of Communism." In another occasion, Miller told that he disliked the film because it "reduced man to a digit in the socialist dialectic."
According to Susan Hayward, the picture's release shortly after the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising by the Soviets caused several critics to attack it as a work of pro-communists, who resisted Joseph McCarthy
and the French War in Algeria but supported the Kremlin. Hayward, however, viewed it as standing in favor of the right to exercise free speech in general.
Nicholas Hytner
Sir Nicholas Robert Hytner is an English film and theatre producer and director. He has been the artistic director of London's National Theatre since 2003.-Biography:...
, see The Crucible (1996 film).
The Crucible is a 1957 joint Franco
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
-East German film production directed by Raymond Rouleau with a screenplay adapted by Jean-Paul Sartre from the 1953 play The Crucible
The Crucible
The Crucible is a 1952 play by the American playwright Arthur Miller. It is a dramatization of the Salem witch trials that took place in the Province of Massachusetts Bay during 1692 and 1693. Miller wrote the play as an allegory of McCarthyism, when the US government blacklisted accused communists...
, by Arthur Miller
Arthur Miller
Arthur Asher Miller was an American playwright and essayist. He was a prominent figure in American theatre, writing dramas that include plays such as All My Sons , Death of a Salesman , The Crucible , and A View from the Bridge .Miller was often in the public eye,...
.
Plot
1692, Salem, MassachusettsSalem, Massachusetts
Salem is a city in Essex County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 40,407 at the 2000 census. It and Lawrence are the county seats of Essex County...
. John Proctor is the only member in the town's assembly who resists the attempts of the rich to gain more wealth on the expense of the poor farmers, thus incurring the wrath of deputy governor Danforth. Proctor's sternly puritanical wife, Elizabeth, is sick and has not shared his bed for months, and he was seduced by his maid, Abigail. When he ends his affair with her, Abigail and several other local girls turn to slave Tituba. Reverend Parris catches the girls in the forest as they partake in what appears to be witchcraft. Abigail and the rest deny it, telling that they have been bewitched. A wave of hysteria engulfs the town, and Danforth uses the girls' accusations to instigate a series of trials, during which his political enemies are accused of heresy and executed. When Abigail blames Elizabeth Proctor, the latter rejects John's pleas to defraud Abigail as an adulteress. Eventually, both Proctors are put on trial and refuse to sign a confession. The townspeople rebel, but not before John is hanged with other defendants; his pregnant wife has been spared. Elizabeth tells the angry crowd to let Abigail live.
Cast
- Simone SignoretSimone SignoretSimone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top...
as Elizabeth ProctorElizabeth ProctorElizabeth Proctor was accused of witchcraft in the Salem Witch Trials. She was the third wife of John Proctor, and remarried after his execution. Part of her life was fictitiously dramatized as part of Arthur Miller's play The Crucible and later adaptations.-Early life:Elizabeth was the daughter... - Yves MontandYves Montand-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
as John ProctorJohn ProctorJohn Proctor was a farmer in 17th century Massachusetts. He married three women in his life, and divorced the first two. The last one he married was Elizabeth Proctor, who gave birth to two children, William and Sarah... - Chantal Gozzi as Francy Proctor
- Mylène DemongeotMylène DemongeotMylène Demongeot is a French actress, who has appeared in 72 films since 1953. She was born Marie-Hélène Demongeot in Nice, Southern France....
as Abigail WilliamsAbigail WilliamsAbigail Williams was one of the initial accusers in the Salem witch trials of 1692, which led to the arrest and imprisonment of over 150 innocent people.-Salem Witch trials:... - Alfred AdamAlfred AdamAlfred Adam was a French character actor, who usually played weak or villainous roles.-Partial filmography:*La Kermesse Héroïque *Au service du Tsar *La Glu *Carnet de Bal...
as Thomas PutnamThomas PutnamThomas Putnam was a participant in the Salem witch trials. He was the son of Lt. Thomas Putnam and Ann Holyoke . He was also a nephew of Elizur Holyoke and great uncle of General Israel Putnam.... - Françoise Lugagne as Jane Putnam
- Raymond Rouleau as Thomas DanforthThomas DanforthThomas Danforth was a judge for the 1692 Salem witch trials in early colonial America.-Early life:He was born in Framlingham, Suffolk, England as the eldest son of Nicholas Danforth and Elizabeth Symmes...
- Pierre LarqueyPierre LarqueyPierre Larquey was a French film actor. He appeared in 214 films between 1913 and 1962. He was born in Citon-Cenac, France and died in Maisons-Laffitte, France.-Selected filmography:* Le Scandale...
as Francis Nurse - Marguerite Coutan-Lambert as Rebecca NurseRebecca NurseRebecca Towne Nurse was executed for witchcraft by the government of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England in 1692, during the Salem witch trials. She was the wife of Francis Nurse, with several children and grandchildren, and a well-respected member of the community...
- Jean DebucourtJean DebucourtJean Debucourt was a French film actor. He appeared in 104 films between 1920 and 1958.-Selected filmography:* The Fall of the House of Usher * Mayerling * Devil in the Flesh...
as Samuel ParrisSamuel ParrisSamuel Parris was the Puritan minister in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem witch trials; he was also the father of one of the afflicted girls, and the uncle of another.-Life:... - Darling LegitimusDarling LégitimusDarling Légitimus, born Mathilda Paruta on 21 November 1907 at Le Carbet, who died on 7 December 1999 at the age of 92, at Kremlin-Bicetre, was a French actress originated from Carraibes black artistes...
as TitubaTitubaTituba was a 17th-century slave belonging to Samuel Parris of Salem, Massachusetts. Tituba was one of the first three people accused of practicing witchcraft during the Salem witch trials which took place in 1692. Tituba was the first person accused by Betty Parris and Abigail Williams of... - Michel Piccoli as James Putnam
- Gerd Michael HennebergGerd Michael HennebergGerd Michael Henneberg was a German actor and theater director.-Biography:Gerd Henneberg's father, Richard, was a theater director. After the young Heeneberg took private acting classes, he made his debut on stage at the age of sixteen, in the Leipzig Theater...
as Joseph HerrickJoseph HerrickJoseph Herrick was the principal law enforcement officer in Salem, Massachusetts during the Salem Witchcraft Trials of 1692. Joseph, it was believed, was the son of Henry Herrick, who was the fifth son of Sir William Herrick of Beaumanor Park, in the parish of Loughborough, in the county of... - Yves Brainville as John Hale
- Pascale Petit as Mary WarrenMary WarrenMary Ann Warren was the oldest of the accusers during the 1692 Salem witch trials, in her teens. She was a servant for John and Elizabeth Proctor. Renouncing her claims after being threatened to be hanged, she was later arrested for practicing witchcraft herself, but did not confess...
- Véronique Nordey as Mercy LewisMercy Lewis-Brief Overview:Mercy Lewis was born in Falmouth, Maine in 1675 and was a servant in Thomas Putnam’s household. She is also one of the featured characters in Arthur Miller's play The Crucible...
- Jeanne Fusier-Gir as Martha CoreyMartha CoreyMartha Corey was accused of being a witch during the 1692 Salem witch trials.The community was surprised to see Corey accused, as she was known for her piety and dedicated church attendance. However, she had never shown support for the witch trials, since she did not believe witches existed...
- Jean Gaven as Peter Corey
- Aribert Grimmer as Gilles Corey
- Alexandre Rignault as Samuel WillardSamuel WillardReverend Samuel Willard was a Colonial clergyman. He was born in Concord, Massachusetts; graduated at Harvard in 1659; and was minister at Groton from 1663 to 1676, whence he was driven by the Indians during King Philip's War. The Reverend Willard was pastor of the Third Church, Boston, from...
- Pâquerette (Marguerite Jeanne Martine Puech) as Sarah GoodSarah GoodSarah Good Born in Salem Village , Massachusetts, was accused of witchcraft in 1692. It has been proved in multiple ways that Sarah Good was falsely accused of witchcraft. She was accused only because of economical and political biases from the families of the accusers...
- Gérard Darrieu as Ezekiel Cheever
- François Joux as Judge
- Sabine Thalbach as Kitty
- Ursula Körbs as Wollit
- Hans Klering as Field
Production
Jean-Paul Sartre began writing the script in late 1955, during what author David CauteDavid Caute
John David Caute is a British author, novelist, playwright, historian and journalist.Caute was educated at Edinburgh Academy, Wellington, Wadham College, Oxford and St Antony's College, Oxford. A Henry Fellow at Harvard, he was elected a Fellow of All Souls College, Oxford in 1959, but resigned in...
defined as "the height of his rapprochement with the Soviet Union". He was inspired by the success of Marcel Aymé
Marcel Aymé
Marcel Aymé was a French novelist, children's writer, humour writer and also a screenwriter and theatre playwright.- Biography :...
's French-language adaptation of Miller's The Crucible, titled Les sorcières de Salem, which was staged in Paris' Sarah Bernhardt Theater
Théâtre de la Ville
The Théâtre de la Ville is one of the two theatres built in the 19th century by Baron Haussmann at Place du Châtelet, Paris; the other being the Théâtre du Châtelet...
, starring Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret
Simone Signoret was a French cinema actress often hailed as one of France's greatest movie stars. She became the first French person to win an Academy Award, for her role in Room at the Top...
as Elizabeth Proctor. Sartre later said he was moved to write his adaptation because "the play showed John Proctor persecuted, but no one knows why... His death seems like a purely ethical act, rather than one of freedom, that is undertaken in order to resist the situation effectively. In Miller's play... Each of us can see what he wants, each public will find in it confirmation of its own attitude... Because the real political and social implications of the witch-hunt don't appear clearly." The screenplay was 300 pages long. Sartre's version was different from the original play in many ways; Elizabeth save Abigail from lynching and the townspeople rise up against Thomas Danforth
Thomas Danforth
Thomas Danforth was a judge for the 1692 Salem witch trials in early colonial America.-Early life:He was born in Framlingham, Suffolk, England as the eldest son of Nicholas Danforth and Elizabeth Symmes...
, who becomes the chief antagonist.
The film was one of four major Franco-East German co-productions made during the late 1950 - the others were Till Ulenspiegel's Adventures
Les Aventures de Till L'Espiègle
Les Aventures de Till L'Espiègle is an East German film. It was released in 1956....
, Les Misérables
Les Misérables (1958 film)
Les Misérables is a film version of the Victor Hugo novel released in France on March 12, 1958. Written by Michel Audiard and René Barjavel, the film was directed by Jean-Paul Le Chanois...
and Les Arrivistes. The Democratic Republic's government authorized the DEFA studio to collaborate with companies outside the Eastern Bloc in order to gain access to Western audiences, thus bypassing the limitations imposed by West Germany's Hallstein Doctrine
Hallstein Doctrine
The Hallstein Doctrine, named after Walter Hallstein, was a key doctrine in the foreign policy of the Federal Republic of Germany after 1955. It established that the Federal Republic would not establish or maintain diplomatic relations with any state that recognized the German Democratic Republic...
; eventually, they intended their films to reach also the public in the Federal Republic. The French, on their part, were interested in reducing costs by filming in East Germany. Principal photography took place in DEFA's Babelsberg Studios
Babelsberg Studios
The Studio Babelsberg, located in Potsdam-Babelsberg, Germany, is the oldest large-scale film studio in the world. Founded in 1912, it covers an area of about . Hundreds of films, including Fritz Lang's Metropolis and Josef von Sternberg's The Blue Angel were filmed there...
from August to mid-October 1956, with additional shooting in Paris during early November.
Reception
Les Sorcières de Salem sold 1,686,749 tickets. For their appearance in it, Signoret won the 1957 BAFTA Award for Best Foreign Actress and Mylène Demongeot
Mylène Demongeot
Mylène Demongeot is a French actress, who has appeared in 72 films since 1953. She was born Marie-Hélène Demongeot in Nice, Southern France....
was nominated for the BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
BAFTA Award for Best Newcomer
-Best British Director, Producer or Writer in the First Film:*2006 - Red Road - Andrea Arnold**Black Sun – Gary Tarn**Pierrepoint – Christine Langan**London to Brighton – Paul Andrew Williams...
in the same year. In the 1957 Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
Karlovy Vary International Film Festival
The Karlovy Vary International Film Festival is a film festival held annually in July in Karlovy Vary , Czech Republic. The Karlovy Vary Festival gained worldwide recognition over the past years and has become one of Europe's major film events....
, the Best Actor Award was given to "all actors of Les Sorcières de Salem in collective, and especially to Yves Montand
Yves Montand
-Early life:Montand was born Ivo Livi in Monsummano Terme, Italy, the son of poor peasants Giuseppina and Giovanni Livi, a broommaker. Montand's mother was a devout Catholic, while his father held strong Communist beliefs. Because of the Fascist regime in Italy, Montand's family left for France in...
."
The New York Times' critic Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther
Bosley Crowther was a journalist and author who was film critic for The New York Times for 27 years. His reviews and articles helped shape the careers of actors, directors and screenwriters, though his reviews, at times, were unnecessarily mean...
wrote that "out of The Crucible... Jean-Paul Sartre and Raymond Rouleau have got a powerful and compelling film... For now Mr. Miller's somewhat cramped and peculiarly parochial account... comes forth as a sort of timeless drama... This is a persistently absorbing film." The Time magazine's reviewer commented that "Witches of Salem is a foredoomed but fascinating attempt... But it hardly helps the scriptwriter's case... When he sums the whole story up as an early American instance of class warfare."
Michel Contat and Michel Rybalka, who edited and annotated Sartre's writings, noted that he introduced a strong element of communist class struggle
Class struggle
Class struggle is the active expression of a class conflict looked at from any kind of socialist perspective. Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels wrote "The [written] history of all hitherto existing society is the history of class struggle"....
into his adaptation of Miller's play, especially by turning Danforth from merely sanctimonious to a calculated villain who pulls the strings behind the trial, while making the character of Abigail more complex and consequently, almost sympathetic. In the introduction to the 2010 edition of The Crucible, editor Susan C. W. Abbotson described the film's plot as a "conflict between capitalists and heroic Marxists", writing that "Miller felt the Marxist references were too heavy-handed. Most critics agreed." Abbotson also commented that "Sartre changed the play's theme... His version becomes despiritualized... As it desires to present us the heroic representatives of Communism." In another occasion, Miller told that he disliked the film because it "reduced man to a digit in the socialist dialectic."
According to Susan Hayward, the picture's release shortly after the crushing of the 1956 Hungarian Uprising by the Soviets caused several critics to attack it as a work of pro-communists, who resisted Joseph McCarthy
Joseph McCarthy
Joseph Raymond "Joe" McCarthy was an American politician who served as a Republican U.S. Senator from the state of Wisconsin from 1947 until his death in 1957...
and the French War in Algeria but supported the Kremlin. Hayward, however, viewed it as standing in favor of the right to exercise free speech in general.
External links
- The Crucible (1957) on Rotten TomatoesRotten TomatoesRotten Tomatoes is a website devoted to reviews, information, and news of films—widely known as a film review aggregator. Its name derives from the cliché of audiences throwing tomatoes and other vegetables at a poor stage performance...
. - Die Hexen von Salem on filmportal.de.
- Die Hexen von Salem on cinema-leipzig.de.
- Die Hexen von Salem on defa.de.
- Die Hexen von Salem on umass.edu.
- Die Hexen von Salem on 2001.de.