Le sang à la tête (1956)

After thirty years of hard work, François Cardinaud, a former dockworker, has become a shipowner and fish wholesaler, and one of the most powerful men in the port of La Rochelle. He married Marthe, a childhood friend from a poor background, which is why she is not accepted by La Rochelle’s respectable society. She cannot find her place and is bored in their large bourgeois home, surrounded by a cook, a gardener, and a governess caring for her two children while her husband is often absent. She runs away for three days with Mimile, a young hoodlum and former sweetheart who has returned from Africa. Mimile’s mother sells fish at the auction, and his sister is a prostitute. All of La Rochelle knows about Marthe’s flight and takes pleasure in seeing Cardinaud humiliated. At home, the governess sees his wife’s departure as an opportunity to seduce Cardinaud. While searching for his wife, Cardinaud crosses paths with Drouin, the cargo ship’s captain who brought Mimile back from Africa and whom Mimile reported to the customs officers. Seething with anger, Drouin wants to kill Mimile, while François Cardinaud only wants to get his wife back. The film tells the story of this search for the woman he loves, despite the gaze of a mean-spirited, envious society that believes it can look down on the man it calls a “cuckold.” Unflinching, discreet, and determined, Cardinaud continues his quest for love. After three days, Marthe leaves Mimile, and Cardinaud finds her on the ferry to the Île de Ré. The spouses reunite in an elegant, elliptical scene that leaves open the possibility of a bond to be reinvented.