Un Carnet de Bal

A couple of decades on, the list of partners on an old dance card, dating back to when she was 16, excites the curiosity of Bell, a well-heeled widow, who sets off on a quest to discover what became of them all. As if the framework itself wasn't poignant enough, the film's seven episodes plus coda are mostly concerned with death, disappointment and the melancholy of dashed hopes. (Moral: throw stuff away.) Too slick and sentimental to be truly affecting, the film's justification is its extraordinary cast: Jouvet as a rueful but ruthless crook, Raimu a small town mayor conducting his own wedding ceremony, Blanchar a one-eyed abortionist. The actual production is rather skimpy, compared with the resources Duvivier was able to lavish on Lydia, his Hollywood remake.