The Ladies of the Bois de Boulogne

Filmed in 1944 during the German occupation of Paris, there is no mention of World War II, no sign of any German presence, not a single uniform in sight, even at the wedding, and none of the usual well-known wartime regulations and/or shortages. Jean, with apparent ample income, but no meaningful source of obtaining it, seems also to have not only escaped military service, but also drives around Paris, otherwise devoid of civilian traffic and military or police control, in a pre-war American-made 1936 Pontiac convertible that would have normally have been confiscated for wartime use decades earlier, and with an apparent ample supply of otherwise unobtainable gasoline.

In the meeting between Hélène and Jean in which they tell each other that there is no more love between the two, the clock on the mantelpiece jumps from ten to twelve to ten past twelve within seconds.

The German dubbed version is about two minutes shorter, due to several cuts in the final scenes. The channel Arte screened the complete movie with the missing scenes subtitled.

Edited into Histoire(s) du cinéma: La monnaie de l'absolu (1999)