The Widow Couderc

In rural France during the 1930s, a young drifter called Jean arrives at an isolated farm and is taken in by the widowed owner, a woman older than himself. She offers him food, shelter and work, and he soon becomes indispensable around the property. A mutual attraction grows between them, though she knows little about his past. Jean has in fact escaped from prison and is hiding from the authorities. Meanwhile the widow is locked in a daily struggle with the relatives of her late husband, who want to push her off the land she holds. Into this tense household comes Félicie, her young niece, and Jean's interest in the girl unsettles the older woman.

Pierre Granier-Deferre directed this 1971 French-Italian production, which was the first of his three credited films in the facts, released four years before The French Detective and The Cage. Simone Signoret plays the widow and Alain Delon plays Jean Lavigne, with Ottavia Piccolo as Félicie, alongside Jean Tissier, Monique Chaumette and Boby Lapointe. Raymond Danon produced, and the film runs 92 minutes.

Audience response has been modest but lasting. On IMDb it holds a 6.9 rating from around 2,500 votes, and on TMDB it sits at 6.8 from roughly 105 votes, a small sample by comparison, though the two scores are close.