Obscure French Movie?

Hello,

I'm desperately trying to track down a French film I saw as a teenager (in the 80s)! The plot went something like this:
A woman finds out her husband and his lover are plotting to kill her. She gains evidence and takes them to court. Somehow, in France, there is this weird law about crimes of passion which lets the accused walk free when officially forgiven by their victim. So she forgives her husband and the next thing you see they're living in blissful married harmony again.

Or do they?

Turns out, she's sneakily busy trying to drive him insane! I remember him hearing voices out of a radio which was not plugged in, whilst she maintained she couldn't hear a thing! Unbeknownst to him, she had rigged it so it played back conversations she had taped of his and his lover's evil plotting against her!
Her plan worked well and, overcome with his guilty conscience, he ends up jumping out of the window!

Next her attention turns towards the lover!

Here my memory becomes hazy, but I think she managed to make her fall in love with her, and the lover ended up in a lunatic asylum.

Then she meets a new guy and falls in love, her need for revenge vanishes and she decides to go to her solicitor to destroy all incriminating evidence against the lover and set her free from the asylum again, then walk off into the sunset with her new man!

And just as she's about to get to the solicitor, she sees new guy all loved up, waiting for her across the street, their eyes meet, she rushes forward and - gets hit by a massive van!!

So, it all ends in tears!!

I love that film, but nobody seems to have heard of it - can anybody help?

Thank you!

Is this a movie you saw with subtitles, dubbed, or in the original French because you speak the language? If it is the latter and the movie was not distributed overseas, you are out of luck on this site. The distinction between subtitles and dubbed is important because if dubbed it will be an older movie.

Hey, we have token foreigners here. And token old people too

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Dubbed isn't a problem, but there aren't any regular contributors from France. If it's dubbed, we know we're looking for a movie from seventies or earlier because they stopped dubbing French movies by the eighties. If it really is an obscure French movie only shown locally, it's not going to be identified here. But if it hit the art house circuit the odds are better.

If you saw the film in the '80s, then we know it's at least 20-25 years old, but that really doesn't tell us how early the film could be. It sounds like it could be from the 1960s-1980s or so. Could you narrow it down? Is it in color? Is it mostly set in the city or in the countryside?

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I actually saw it in Germany and it was dubbed into German...
So, I don't know if they would have dubbed it into English or used subtitles, but from what I can remember, it looked quite 70s or early 80s by the style of it!
And I'm vehemently hoping they didn't just show it in Germany...

...and it was in colour and mainly in town (maybe Paris, but I really can't remember)
... the asylum seemed slightly more rural in its setting, but it might just have been in greener grounds...

the plot thickens. couldn't be not a french movie? just set in france?

Could be an Italian movie dubbed in German set in France.

Errm... yeah... but I'm pretty sure it was a French movie set in France...

I can't help you, but I know some people that might be able to. I'll ask and get back to you.

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Thank you Harry - My breath is bated in anticipation!

Did you see it on German television or in a theater?

It was on telly!! - My entire family saw it but, maddeningly, no one remembers it!!

Someone there mentioned this film called Praying Mantis: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0084531/. They said it only partially fit your description and that it was more of a long shot. It's a British TV film, set and filmed in France, based on a French novel, and has also been dubbed into German.

They figured that chances are it wasn't the film you were thinking of but still worthy of mention. It's still early, though. Keep checking in and an answer might show up soon enough.

Oooh, that did sound promising!! - Annoyingly there are hardly any synopes about it, but from the little I gathered, they were right; I don't think that was it! - But thanks for being on the case! I shall check in regularly!!

I know it's not this one cos it doesn't meet all your details but have you seen the 1955 film Les Diaboliques? it's a brilliant twisted film which has some themes of the one you're looking for , scary too.

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0046911/

Christine, that sounds like a great film - I know of it but I've never seen it! - I've now ordered it on Amazon!

excellent! You'll love it I'm sure. Come back and tell us when you've seen it

This isn't it either, but has a similar set-up and is very good, but it is obscure also (not as obscure as yours) and not on DVD. It is also set in France, but isn't French.