Le Diable au corps (film)
Date: 1947
Region: Europe
Subject: Explicit Sexuality
Medium: Film Video
Artist: Claude Autant-Lara
Confronting Bodies: Official censors
Dates of Action: 1947
Location: France
Description of Artwork: The film is an adaptation of Raymond Radiguet's novel. An affair between an adolescent and the young wife of a soldier fighting on the front. This carefree adultery was considered extremely shocking at the time. A quarter of a century later, Radiguet's novel was still perceived as scandalous.
The Incident: France was slowly overcoming a murderous war, its veterans were revered, the adultery of a soldier's wife was intolerable.
Results of Incident: The director was forced to cut 20 minutes out of the total length of the 2 hour film.
Source: Jacques Duquesne, Libre parcours