Elena and Her Men (Elena et les Hommes)

Jean Renoir shot Elena and Her Men (French: Elena et les Hommes) in 1955 and released it in 1956, a Franco-Italian film blending drama and romance with comedy. English-speaking markets first knew it as Paris Does Strange Things. Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais and Mel Ferrer lead the cast. It was Bergman's first film after leaving her husband, Roberto Rossellini.

The story is set in Paris at the start of the Belle Époque. Bergman's Elena is convinced she was made to help the men she meets fulfil their destinies. Renoir summed her up in one sentence: "Elena is Venus." Early drafts were to feature General Boulanger, accused of plotting against the republic, but in the final version Renoir dropped historical accuracy and shifted the emphasis to Bergman's heroine.

Many critics see the film as the third part of Renoir's "trilogy of spectacle", after The Golden Coach (1952) and French Cancan (1955). Its look is bright and picturesque, recalling Impressionist paintings and popular prints, with deliberately artificial settings. It was prepared in a French and an English version, the latter differing in places and twelve minutes shorter. It found success with audiences and critics in France but scored poorly in the United States, and a restored copy appeared in the early 21st century.