Im Sumpf von Paris

Moguy was not a great director, and despite his ' old fashioned ' feel to his films he could sometimes give a hard smack to the rules of society. This film called ' The Width of the Pavement ' in the UK and bearing an ' X ' certificate ( this is on the BBFC site ) was a second feature and was considered sensationalist. In fact it was a sober, if melodromatic account of how through no fault of her own and rejected by society because of her poverty a 17 year old girl gets entangled into prostitution. Danik Patisson plays her well and is very beautiful, and her situation is believable as a woman who falls into the lack of money trap. She lives after her grandmother's death with the help of a social worker, played superbly by the great Anne Vernon, with an awful family, and they make life hell for her simply because she is not in their social class. The poor as far as they are concerned can go to hell, and she almost does. I will give no other spoilers but simply to say it is hard to find, but can be if searched long enough and deserves to be seen. There is a cameo performance by Francoise Rosay ( one of the best actors in French cinema and legendary ) that takes the breath away and sums up the spirit of social deprivation in one painful scene. The film moves at a fast pace and is never boring, and those in search of lurid exploitation go to another film. Moguy should not be so ignored ( as he is ) by todays film distributors and his films should be more available.