On January 31, 1857, the French writer Gustave Flaubert (1821-80) took his place in the dock for contempt of public morality and religion. The accused, the real one, is, through him, Emma Bovary, heroine with a thousand faces and a thousand desires, guilty without doubt of an unforgivable desire to live.

A man on his own welcomes a baby-sitter at his mansion in southern France. The child in question is not there; he is to arrive soon. The young woman is sceptical, a bit afraid, of this unctuous but charming gentleman, this ogre who will gradually come to obsess her. He talks to her, charms her and then finishes by throwing her over, making fun of her, only to fascinate her as a snake does its prey.

Reel 27 of Gérard Courant’s on-going Cinematon series.