A prison, a poisoned marriage, and a child nobody claims — French noir misery at 88 vicious minutes.
An unhappy wife who has had a child by her lover lives a daily drama under the watchful eye of her husband who hates them both.
Acting
Viviane Romance's trapped-animal stillness.
Direction
Lampin's suffocating close-ups in cramped spaces.
Director
Georges Lampin
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released during France's post-occupation moral panic, the film's prison melodrama reflected anxieties about female sexuality and social control.
Lampin cut his teeth as assistant to Marcel Carné — you can feel the Children of Paradise DNA in how he frames trapped desire.
FR
