People of No Importance
Directed by Henri Verneuil1956 1h 41mDrama
7.1
Jean is a long-distance lorry driver whose usual run is from Paris, where he lives with his unsympathetic wife and children, to Bordeaux. A favourite stop is La Caravane, a roadside restaurant where he is attracted to Clo, a pretty and affectionate young woman who is estranged from her family and survives by waitressing. Anxious to be with him, she gives up her job and goes to Paris, where she finds work as a chambermaid in a sordid hotel used by prostitutes. She also finds that she is pregnant, which the hotel manager resolves by sending her for an illegal abortion. Jean meanwhile has been sacked, partly because his tachograph showed too much time spent at La Caravane, and as soon as he finds another job he arranges to take her home in his lorry. But septicaemia has set in and, though he stops on the way and calls an ambulance, she dies.
