Elena and Her Men

Elena and Her Men (original title: Elena et les Hommes) is a 1956 Franco-Italian drama and romance film directed and written by Jean Renoir, starring Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais, and Mel Ferrer. Set in Paris at the dawn of the Belle Époque, it follows Elena, a woman convinced she was made to help the men she meets fulfill their destinies. Renoir summed up the character in one phrase: "Elena is Venus."

The film was Bergman's first after leaving her husband Roberto Rossellini, and many critics regard it as the third entry in Renoir's informal trilogy of spectacles, alongside The Golden Coach (1952) and French Cancan (1955). Although early drafts involved the historical figure General Boulanger, Renoir abandoned strict historicity to focus on Bergman's heroine. Well received in France, the film was later released in a restored copy in the early 21st century.