#1172b: DURAS, Marguerite: Baxter, Vera Baxter (1977)

DURAS, Marguerite (France)
Baxter, Vera Baxter [1977]
Spine #1172b
Blu-ray


Marguerite Duras reunited with India Song collaborators Delphine Seyrig and composer Carlos d’Alessio for Baxter, Vera Baxter, a hypnotically unsettling journey into one woman’s existential emptiness. Ensconced in a sprawling rental villa, the world-weary Vera Baxter (Claudine Gabay) receives visits from two women, including a mysterious stranger (Seyrig) to whom she recounts a shocking story about her marriage, the way she lives, and the reasons for her malaise. Setting her languid images to d’Alessio’s incongruously breezy, endlessly looping score, Duras fashions a quietly shattering portrait of marriage as a kind of prison.

95 Minutes
Color
Monaural
in French
1:66:1
Criterion Release 2023


Director/Writers

Marguerite Duras was 63 when she wrote and directed Baxter, Vera Baxter.

Other Duras films in the Collection:

#1172a: India Song (1975)

The Film

a

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-four page booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Ivone Margulies.

Commentary

None.

Marguerite as She Was

A 2003 portrait of Duras.

Interview

From 1977 with Duras.

Excerpt

From a 1977 documentary on actor Seyrig.

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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