Thérèse Raquin (1953)

After being adopted by her aunt, Thérèse Raquin was forced into marrying her sickly cousin Camille at an early age. For the past 17 years, she has been trapped in a loveless marriage, working in her aunt’s haberdashery shop in Lyon to support the husband she has grown to despise. One day, Camille gets himself drunk and has to be carried home by Laurent, an Italian lorry driver. The instant that Thérèse sees Laurent she is attracted to him. He is everything a man should be, not the mean sickly creature she is married to. Laurent is equally drawn to Thérèse and the two embark on a clandestine love affair. When he realises his wife’s infidelity, Camille decides to take her to Paris, to place her with relatives who will cure her of her wanton nature. On the train to Paris, Thérèse is met by Laurent, who urges her to elope with him. In the course of a violent confrontation, Laurent throws Camille out of the train. For a while, it looks as if the police have accepted Thérèse’s story that her husband’s death was an accident. Then she receives an unexpected visit from a man who claims to have witnessed Camille’s last few moments…