Lady of the Camelias

Alphonsine is a girl from the provinces. Her father sells her as a child and she comes to Paris. She has one aim: to get inside the wealthy circles of the city. Over the years she becomes known as Marie Duplessis, is treated with respect, and the famous names of Paris gather in her salon. Tuberculosis takes hold of her young. Mauro Bolognini's film tells the story of the real woman behind Alexandre Dumas fils's The Lady of the Camellias; Dumas knew her, and wrote her story after her death. Isabelle Huppert plays Alphonsine and Gian Maria Volonté the father. The telling makes her neither saint nor sinner; it shows the arrangement that sold her. Bruno Ganz and Fernando Rey are also in the cast.