Zaza

This silent film directed by Allan Dwan follows Zaza, the favourite performer at an open air theatre in a small French town. Bernard Dufresne, a diplomat who arrives there, keeps away from her because he is afraid of falling for her. During one performance, while Zaza is singing on a swing, a rival cuts the rope and she is badly hurt, and that is how the two of them meet. The affair starts quickly and continues once he installs her in a villa, until his wife appears. The film builds Zaza as neither a victim nor a culprit and lets the decision at the end be hers. Gloria Swanson plays it for comedy and for pain at once. What she decides is left unspoiled.