A Mulher que Pecou

Bryan Forbes' second directorial feature was in sharp contrast to the lighter-toned "Whistle Down The Wind" from the year before. At times a sombre mood-piece, it nevertheless is a sensitive character study of the struggling tenants at a cheap Notting Hill (before it was Notting Hill!) boarding-house to which Leslie Caron's Jane character winds her weary way at the outset.

A 27 year old single French woman, she's pregnant and on her own after her first sexual encounter with an English actor who, like her parents, has recently rejected and abandoned her. Now friendless, she's down at the end of lonely street at this seeming heartbreak hotel where under the bawdy, boozy landlady's charge live a disparate and desperate set of individuals. These comprise a young black jazz musician, a handsome, young, white out-of-work writer, a nosey, fading old white lesbian actress and down in the basement, an old prostitute and her young Hungarian protege, the latter learning the dopes you might say.

After much pressing, Caron eventually, if reluctantly enters into a relationship with Tom Bell's possessive writer which seems to upset the musician next door who possibly has feelings for either one of them. However, once he learns of the pregnancy, Bell quickly drops her, leaving her to seek friendship at each of the other doors in the establishment. As Caron puts it herself, everyone it seems wants her to have an abortion but apart from one major wobble, she's determined to have the child.

It all winds up at a Christmas party for all the tenants in the landlady's front room (Bell excepted) and a nicely written (literally) bitter-sweet conclusion as Caron has to face up to her far from certain future.

Excellently filmed and played by all, this was a fine example of the early 60's kitchen-sink drama prevalent in U.K. cinema at the time. The situations, characterisations, sets and dialogue are credible and natural and shot and played in a convincingly realistic manner. Caron, previously only known to me from big-budget Hollywood movies from her youth is something of a revelation as the alien presence trying to cope with her further alienation all on her own. Bell, too, I was impressed with as the wounded, loquacious charmer unable at the key moment to man-up as today's phrase goes and do the decent thing for someone he clearly loves. All the other supporting characters, played by Brock Peters, Cicely Courtneidge, Avis Bunnage and a pre-Elsie Tanner Pat Phoenix likewise turn in strong performances making this a strong ensemble piece.

Honest, straightforward and moving, this is one of the best movies of its type I've yet seen, the better for focusing on a female character at its bruised, shifting, but always beating heart.

It's a shame this film has been all but forgotten. It's an excellent drama and character study, and features a career best performance from Leslie Caron, as an unwed pregnant French woman at a London boarding house. Though they all want her to get an abortion for various reasons, she refuses, and this forces them all to emerge from their shells and become a framework of friendship and love. The ending is sad, and just about perfect. The fact that time has neglected it is a true shame.

There's a room on the top floor where you are staying, it's partitioned from another where Johnny's laying, the bed is full of bugs, the landlady just shrugs, all in all the situation is dismaying. But that's the least of all the things that's on your mind, as you've got yourself in somewhat of a bind, after a fling with that man Terry, now you're growing like a berry, this is not the way your life had been designed.

An outstanding performance from Leslie Caron as Jane, a lost and lonely French young woman seeking sanctuary in a rundown rented London room after discovering she's pregnant. More than ably supported by Tom Bell as the love-struck youth with little to show for his troubles and Brock Peters as the friendly face next door, as their lives entwine and disconnect as the birth of the child approaches.

I saw this film first when I was twenty and, for me, it summed up all the anguish of being young, female and alone in London. The performances are magnificent, and at the time, I found Tom Bell to be quite attractive. I later went off him when he was successively portrayed as a seedy villainous type. The thing which completely mesmerised me at the time was the music (Brahms First Piano Concerto). I haven't read any other comments about the music and I am interested to know if anyone else was as affected by it as I was. It is, of course, a fabulous piece but this was my first introduction to it. I was a music student in 1962 but in common with many other music students of the time, not very knowledgeable. I immediately became very passionate about this piece.

I was a tender 14 years old in 1962, when I accompanied my mentor (my high school Spanish teacher) to an art house movie theater in Greenwich Village to see this film. My only previous encounter with Leslie Caron had been in the wonderfully entertaining film "Gigi". I must say, this two hour spectacle of unrelieved misery came as quite a shock to me. I left the theater thinking I had just seen the most depressing film I had ever seen in my life. And yet...I loved it! In fact, I felt very grown up at having survived it. This would not have been possible without the aid of the movie's soundtrack, Brahm's Piano Concerto No.1, which my astonished ears heard for the first time that evening. I've been in love with that piece--and with Brahms--ever since.