Manon

Probably the most melodramatic of all of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s films, Manon sweeps through the underworld of postwar France in the form of lovers Manon (Cécile Aubry) and Robert (Michel Auclair), as hopelessly in love as they are destined for annihilation. Stowaways on a cargo ship heading for Palestine, the couple are exposed as fugitives fleeing a murder rap back in Paris, their defense to the ship captain taking form as a long flashback. Having fallen in love practically at first sight during the bombing of a French village (Robert was a resistance fighter), they fled to Paris to celebrate French victory and start a life together. While Robert dreamt of a simple domestic life in the provinces, Manon became obsessed with rising above her childhood poverty and living a life of luxury, even if it meant prostitution for her and black marketeering for Robert. (When Robert pledges to make money honestly, Manon replies, “You don’t know how. You always believed you had to work hard for it, but that’s changed.”) Serge Reggiani plays Manon’s shifty brother Léon, who shares Manon’s materialism and quite literally pimps out his own sister until the inevitable murder takes place — in a movie theater called Le Magic. As expected in a Clouzot film, the film is crafted with absolute precision regardless of setting, whether cargo ship, war-torn village, Montmarte slum, or the glorious Parisian brothel (crystal chandeliers, wrought-iron balustrade) where Robert surprises Manon in a rococo boudoir where he degrades her as a whore and spits in her face as a “parting gift.”