One of the most inspiring rediscoveries of the current series is this Yves Allégret film noir starring his then-wife, Simone Signoret. The “underworld” of the Allégret film noir is the human psyche itself; if his films deal with crime at all, they do so second to the passions that provoke it. In both Manèges and Such a Pretty Little Beach, Allégret masterfully develops the theme (which the French films, in general, do so well) of the painful interplay between love (parental, sexual or marital) and class; or, more appropriately, caste. Signoret plays a lower-middle-class woman, Dora, who marries the up-and-coming owner of a riding school that caters to the wealthy. She has a considerable lot to learn before she can successfully emulate the manners that dominate the coveted milieu of these clients. The indominable Jane Marken is perfectly cast as Dora's harridan mother. Signoret herself is, in 1950, an astonishingly gifted young actress who enacts with complete conviction two roles required of her by this unusual narrative: Dora as seen through the eyes of her husband, and the Dora seen by her mother. The film's present tense is the hospital room where Dora lies seriously ill; mother and husband stand by, each claiming that she must live, for without her neither can go on. As if to plead their cases, each recounts in turn the events of the last few years. Thus this fascinating film is quite modern in its construction--repeating the same story twice, as it were, in conflicting versions. When Allégret returns periodically to the present tense, rhythm, sound and photography combine to remind us of the fact that, save for one or two shots from the hospital bed, no “voice” of her own is ever given this remarkable and complex protagonist. (JB)