Forbidden Fruit

A doctor living the accepted life of the provincial middle class falls in love with a young woman. As the relationship deepens a violent jealousy wakes in him and he begins to blame her for her past attachments and friendships. The film does not offer that jealousy as proof of love; it shows it as the man’s fear of losing his own order. The account does not leave the woman in need of defence and makes plain how groundless the accusations are. The gaze of the town works like a third character. It is one of the works of French cinema of 1952 that took provincial morality as its subject. The ending is tied off without a lesson. Fernandel and Francoise Arnoul appear in Henri Verneuil’s hundred minute French film, completed in 1952.