The tragic story of a young orphan girl who is befriended by an innocent but emotionally disabled veteran of the French Indochina War.
Cinematography
Misty Parisian parks that look like painted dreams about to shatter.
Acting
Hardy Krüger's fragile vacancy—PTSD before we named it.
Score
Maurice Jarre's harp glissandos that sound like innocence falling.
Director
Serge Bourguignon
Hardy Krüger
Pierre
Nicole Courcel
Madeleine
Patricia Gozzi
Françoise / Cybèle
Daniel Ivernel
Carlos
André Oumansky
Bernard
Anne-Marie Coffinet
Françoise II
René Clermont
Postman
Malka Ribowska
Seer
Michel de Ré
Fiacre, the Pharmacist
France Anglade
Lulu
Paul Bonifas
Grocer
Serge Bourguignon
Cavalier
Alain Bouvette
Station Attendant
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Won the 1962 Oscar for Best Foreign Language Film over Kurosawa's Yojimbo and Bergman's Through a Glass Darkly—Hollywood loved its French melancholy.
Bourguignon based this on Bernard Eschassériaux's novel; the film's controversy helped end his career—too beautiful, too disturbing, too ahead of its time.
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