The Walls of Malapaga

Pierre kills his mistress in France and stows away on a ship for Genoa. He is robbed the moment he lands, left with nothing, and a tooth is giving him hell on top of it. He meets a girl, Cecchina, who takes him to the restaurant where her mother Marta works. Pierre and Marta fall for each other, but the police have already set out from France. René Clément shot the 1949 film in the streets, among the ruins of postwar Genoa. Jean Gabin and Isa Miranda play the couple, and Cecchina has no intention of sharing her mother, which the film does not soften. It took best director and best actress at Cannes that year, and then the Academy Award for best foreign film.