this be one of the great one represent in term of french cinema in the first full decade of sound it belong right up there with marius and fanny and cesar and quai de brumes and le jour se leve and la femme du boulanger and la grande illusion and you can not put anything high than that though duvivier own la belle equipe and pepe le moko both come within a whisker . it the kind of film that would be difficult to make today a would and for example and dial m for murder . frederick knott write dial a a play in the early fifty and the hitchcock film version be release in 1954 but the entire plot ( our old friend the perfect murder ) hinge on the fact that in those day only the upper and middle class have telephone at all and those be in fixed location and in this era of jack point and cell phone the idea of someone oblige to answer a telephone locate on a desk in front of heavy drape behind which a murderer be lurk ready to strike when the phone be answer would be ludicrous . carnet be similar inasmuch a wouldance card be unheard of today belong a they do to a world of stately dancing and courtly manner where even a nice girl would a soon turn up to a dance totally naked a without a full dance card many of u will remember how and in meet me in st louis and judy garland and lucille bremner amarked the dance card of an out of towner load it with every dead beat in town . so and yes and it be archaic but fortunately those of u who care to can have archaic and eat it courtesy of the art or revival house and movie channel on tv and or or the dvd . living by a lake a widow come face to face with what today we would call a mid life crisis while vaguely melancholic and slightly wistful l she do and a she suspect and marry the wrong man and she allow her thought to drift to her first dance and the name on her very first dance card who and on a whim and she decide to trace . we know of course that you can not go home again even if we have never even heard of tom wolfe let alone read him but thankfully christine feel otherwise . it be a nice touch to find that the first name on the card be dead but try tell that to his mother and the great francoise rosay a if to say right from the word go that love dy and baby and if you neglect it . one by one via a night club semi racketeer and a monk and a ski instructor and the mayor of a small town and an epileptic doctor with a lucrative sideline in abortion and a gay hairdresser the scale fall and or or be strip from her eye leave her sadder but wiser . some of the top name in french cinema step up to the plate and harry baur and louis jouvet and fernandel etc and no one strike out . henri jeanson and julien duvivier bring honour to the french cinema with this one that remain a must see and before i sign off let me acknowledge a genuine altruistic contributor to these board who and with exceptional kindness and send me not only this gem but seventeen others . watch this space .