Aux yeux du souvenir (1948)

In Senegal in 1948, a patrol plane sets out to search for a small private-company aircraft that has crashed in the desert not far from Dakar. They find the pilot, Jacques Forestier, and his mechanic, Paul Marcadour, near the wreckage. They are unharmed but dead drunk! They had lost control of the aircraft. They are flown back to Paris on an Air France flight thanks to the intervention of a friend, Captain Pierre Aubry. As soon as he boards, Jacques is recognized by the flight attendant, Claire Magny. Their encounter brings back memories. Three years earlier, Claire had been planning a career as an actress, and Jacques was her lover before leaving her abruptly, asking his friend Paul to tell her that they were about to leave for Dakar. It came as a crushing blow to Claire! Depressed, she had tried to kill herself but was saved by Marcelle Marinier, a friend who was a flight attendant at Orly. Claire eventually gave up the theater and the Cours Simon to turn to air travel. In Paris, Jacques meets Claire at their usual restaurant. A frivolous young man, he awkwardly and casually apologizes for his behavior, unaware of how much he hurt her, as he tries to rekindle an affair he had never taken seriously. But Claire rejects him. Feigning indifference, she makes him believe that there is another man in her life: Pierre Aubry! Unemployed, Jacques and Paul are hired by Air France, thanks to Pierre, who takes charge of their training. Jacques soon tells Pierre that he and Claire were lovers. Disappointed, Pierre decides to leave the airline and request a transfer to Indochina. But Claire, to dissuade him, lets him think that she agrees to be his wife. When the three of them meet at a stopover in Rio, Jacques, under the influence of alcohol, causes a scene in a nightclub when he sees Claire dancing in Pierre's arms. Realizing that he is far more attached to Claire than he had thought, Jacques tells her he intends to end his life. Desperate, Claire goes to Jacques's hotel in the middle of the night to stop him from doing something fatal, confessing that three years earlier she had wanted to die because of him. Both of them would like to resume their love affair, but Claire cannot break her commitment or the trust she has in Pierre. It takes an air disaster narrowly averted to rekindle a love that seemed dead. On a return flight to Dakar, Jacques is at the controls while Claire is at her post as a flight attendant. Suddenly, over the ocean, one engine catches fire, then a second. The aircraft is at risk of crashing because it is rapidly losing altitude. The radio operator sends a distress signal. With great effort, Jacques manages to avoid ditching and land at Dakar-Yoff, after Paul, the mechanic, has to lower the landing gear by hand. This ordeal, in which they both nearly died, finally brings Claire and Jacques together again. When Pierre, who was waiting for Claire on arrival, sees the two of them—safe and sound, embracing as they come out of the plane—he understands everything and walks away without a word.