The Female (French title: La Femme et le pantin, meaning The Woman and the Puppet; also known in the UK as A Woman Like Satan) is a 1958 French-Italian drama film directed by Julien Duvivier. It is one of many film adaptations of Pierre Louÿs' 1898 novel La Femme et le pantin.
Don Mateo Diaz (António Vilar) is a respectable, wealthy gentleman and bullfighter who falls under the spell of the alluring, low-class and freedom-loving Éva Marchand (Brigitte Bardot). The spirited Éva does not give herself up easily to Don Mateo and is content to string him along and make him jealous to test how far he is willing to go for her.
Tropes:
- Adaptational Name Change: The female protagonist of the novel, Concepción Peréz (nicknamed Conchita), becomes Éva Marchand in this adaptation.
- Adaptational Nationality: Éva, though living in Seville, is French, whereas her novel counterpart Conchita was as Spanish as the setting. The change was likely to make Brigitte Bardot more believable playing the character.
- Broken Pedestal: Éva at first respects her father Stanislas as an author who was silenced for his ideas. When she learns that he caused a rival to get arrested and die at Auschwitz, she is so aghast at him that she moves out of the house to make it on her own.
- Hot Gypsy Woman: Éva is stated to be a gypsy and no man in town is indifferent to her mysterious and "wild" allure, though being played by Brigitte Bardot, she bears little physical resemblance to the stereotype.
- Prefers Going Barefoot: Éva often walks around the city with no shoes on; it serves to show how free-spirited she is.
- Setting Update: The late 19th century of the novel turns into post-World War II for this film; this is important due to the added plot point of Éva's father denouncing a rival to the authorities during the war and his resulting death in Auschwitz.
- Uptown Girl: Don Mateo is wealthy, Éva is poor. This creates friction between them, as Éva is happy in her condition and refuses to give herself to him out of contempt for the higher class, only doing so at the end once Don Mateo has fallen far enough (getting into a bar fight and spending time in prison) to know what it's like.
