Night in December

"Nuits De Decembre" was,in Kurt aka Curtis Bernhardt's prolific career ,the follow-up to "Carrefour",twice remade as "Le Retour De Martin Guerre" and "sommersby".Both movies deal with identities.

A piano virtuoso(Pierre Blanchar),adored by his audience ,meets a mysterious woman (Renée Saint-Cyr) who attends all his concerts ,has a one-night affair with her;for years and years he tried to find her to no avail.

Twenty years after...... The musician has become a ruthless professor ,who is intractable when it comes to select candidates for the competitive entry examination of the Conservatoire.After rejecting a self-conscious nervous young candidate (Gilbert Gil) ,he finally estimates him at his true value and takes him as a student. Both meet a Young girl with is the strange woman of long ago's dead ringer.Both fall for her,the older suitor thinking he's found back her long lost love.But who is she?

It could have been a fantasy tale ,a la "portrait of Jennie" ,it's actually pure melodrama as the director would later make with such works as " a stolen life" (1946)or "the blue veil" (1951)itself the remake of the eponymous French melodrama .A Freud zest is thrown in for good measure .Fine classic music throughout.