Gervaise

Left with two children when her lover Lantier walks out, the laundress Gervaise (Maria Schell) marries the roofer Henri Coupeau (François Périer) and tries to build a steady life in working-class Paris. René Clément adapts Zola's 1877 novel L'Assommoir, following her through the years as the marriage sours and Lantier comes back into the picture. Schell stands among the wash tubs, her sleeves wet and her face tired.