Jenny (1936)

After a romance breaks up, a young French girl (Lisette Lanvin) living in London returns home to Paris to her mother (Francoise Rosay). What she doesn't know is that her mother runs a dubious "nightclub" which traffics in young girls for rich older men. The mother herself has a penniless young lover (Albert Prejean) that she supplies with money and gifts. Directed by Marcel Carne (CHILDREN OF PARADISE), this was his feature film directorial debut but it doesn't exhibit much of the poetic realism that he became known for in films like PORT OF SHADOWS. It's a melodrama that is a precursor to films like MILDRED PIERCE and THE GRADUATE where mother and daughter share the same lover. While most of the characters are unlikable, the cast is excellent down to the smallest roles. But it is Rosay's film all the way. One can't help but empathize with her older woman in love being used by a younger man and she knows it but she doesn't care. It's not lust but loneliness that keeps her hanging on to this patch of desperation. Rosay isn't mentioned much when talking about the great French actresses but she should be. With Charles Vanel, Jean Louis Barrault, Sylvia Bataille, Margo Lion and Roland Toutain.