La vérité sur Bébé Donge

Ambitious,not always successful,this Decoin film is adapted from George Simenon. It's a long flashback,mixing present and past with occasional gaps.The black and white cinematography is thoroughly mastered:Danielle Darrieux, all dressed in black(and beautiful), like a death angel, visits her dying husband with a pallid face in a white room.Another shot, before the end, shows a car disappearing in the darkest night.

Bebe Donge is a romantic woman, a "Madame Bovary",who believes in true love. She does not realize that, in the bourgeois world which she lives in, these values are no longer in use.Her husband (Gabin) is cynical and does not even try to hide his lovers.In 1951,for the bourgeoisie,divorce was unthinkable:the wedding ceremony, with great pomp meant, for these hypocrites, that what the lord joined together, the world must not undo. So Darrieux ,who was a charming young woman, becomes a murderer. There was nothing to suggest that such a disaster might happen .

Although not as good as "non coupable" with Michel Simon,"la vérité sur Bébé Donge" is eminently watchable and will reward you as much as, say, a Godard movie.Or surely more...