Gervaise

France   Maria Schell   D/ Rene Clement

Extremely well done film from 1956. We follow the (mis)fortunes of a lovely working-class young woman with a bad limp who marries badly and suffers all sorts of disappointment and degradation.  MS does a masterful job of making her decisions seem believable even though they lead to her continual suffering. She was constrained by the retro attitudes toward women in 1850's Paris.

Fine window into the world of the ragged folk of the time...how they lived day-to-day. This is a largely forgotten classic by the master director who gave us Forbidden Games.

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