Marcel Carné is mostly known for the films he made before the Second World War (such as "Le quai des brumes" (1938) and "Le jour se leve" (1939)), but also in 1953 he is still able to make an excellent film noir (for a change from the country that invented the name of this genre).
The somewhat forgotten Roger Hubert is responsible for the beautiful black and white photography and Simone Signoret plays the femme fatale. I always remember Signoret the way she looked in her later years, her appearance thoroughly neglected, and every time I see a movie from her early days I am amazed how beautiful she ones was.
The film begins rather weak. A young woman is married to a man that is silly in a caricatural way but does have a very attractive friend. There are more subtle ways to indicate that the film will be about adultery.
Over time however the film goes stronger and stronger. The surprising ending nearly equals that of "Diabolique" (1955, Henri Georges Clouzot), also with Simone Signoret. What was most interesting to me however was the middle part, the confrontation between the woman and the mother in law afer the dead of the husband. In reality these confrontations are confrontations of the woman with her own conscience. This part of the film resonates the work of writers as Poe and Dostojevski.
To conclude, something for the real filmbuffs. Maria Pia Casilio plays a tiny part as chambermaid in a hotel. From the first second I saw her I thought "I know that girl, she plays Maria in "Umberto D" (1952, Vittorio de Sica)". A little investigation proved that I was right, so I can count myself as a filmbuff.
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