Le Puits aux trois vérités (1961)
Directed by François Villiers

Film Review

François Villiers, brother of the actor Jean-Pierre Aumont, is an all but forgotten but once highly appreciated filmmaker who made a series of uneven pictures such as Hans le marin (1949), L'Eau vive (1958), La Verte moisson (1959), Pierrot la tendresse (1960), Constance aux enfers (1963) and L'Autre femme (1964).  His Franco-Italian drama Le Puits aux trois verités had its premiere on 13th October 1961.  Via a fraught mother-daughter-husband relationship and a suspicious death, the viewer is manoeuvred through a well-rounded script containing several flashbacks and scattered parcels of truths about events that took place before the victim's death.  Strangely enough, the truth takes the form of three plausible versions when told by the mother, the husband and even the victim.  François Villiers invites everyone to arrive at his own version of the truth and the effort of doing so brings its rewards.  It is inventive filmmaking with some delicious dialogue from the master Henri Jeanson.

Perhaps there are a few minor weaknesses which slow things down a little, and the conclusion was certainly intended to be cynical.  When choosing his two lead actors it appears that Villiers was anxious not to be left behind by the New wave, but by tackling a real story he could do so without losing an older audience.  Between Fortunat and Les Lions sont lachés, Michèle Morgan, one of France's leading ladies, lent her name and talent to the role of Renée, the ambiguous mother in this independent production, an experience she will repeat in films such as Rencontres, Les Yeux cernés, and Les pas perdus.  Jean-Claude Brialy is in full bloom as Laurent, the cynical, tender and unhappy hero.  Catherine Spaak (daughter of scriptwriter Charles Spaak and niece of the former Belgian prime minister Paul-Henri Spaak, remembered for her part in Henri Verneuil's Week-end à Zuydcoote) is convincing as the weak daughter Danielle.  The co-stars include such familiar faces as Michel Etcheverry, the Italian beauty Scilla Gabel and the Latin lover Franco Fabrizi.  The truth of the matter is that Le puits aux trois verités found an audience of over 1.5 million.

Film Synopsis

Midnight in Paris, Faubourg St Honoré.  In one house, a woman suddenly screams and the sound of a gunshot is heard.  A short time later, Laurent Lénaud, a young painter, is running away with a suitcase.  Arriving at a hotel, he enters a room where a young woman named Rossana is crying.  The room is strewn with broken furniture and clothes lie on the floor.  Laurent is almost certain that his wife Danielle is to blame for this.  Meanwhile, in an expensive apartment a woman is responding to the questions put to her by police officer Bertrand.  She is Renée Plèges, the owner of an antiques shop.  That evening, she found her daughter Danielle shot dead.  Renée explains that Laurent, her son-in-law, wanted to leave Danielle.  When she refused to divorce him, he killed her.  While Bertrand asks Renée to tell him everything she remembers since the first day she met Laurent, the latter recounts to his mistress Rossana the events that took place before Danielle's death.  Two completely different stories emerge.  Then Danielle's personal diary is found, bringing a third explanation of what took place that evening...