At the end of the 19th century, during a ball in Joinville, on the outskirts of Paris, Georges, a former delinquent working as a carpenter, meets Marie, a young woman connected to a criminal gang.
Acting
Signoret's Marie burns the screen with sensual fatalism.
Cinematography
Becker's shadow-drenched Belle Époque is achingly gorgeous.
Direction
Becker builds inevitability like a tightening noose.
Director
Jacques Becker
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Becker spent years researching the real Leca gang case, yet deliberately softened the historical Marie to make her sympathetic—a choice that scandalized some critics.
Simone Signoret and director Yves Allégret attended the premiere; her future husband Yves Montand was so jealous of her chemistry with Reggiani he refused to watch it for years.
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