The Truth (1960)

Academy Awards, USA 1961

Nominated Oscar

Best Foreign Language Film France.

Columbia Pictures
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
My rating: 2 stars out of 4
IMDb Wikipedia
(YouTube)

Rebellious teenager Brigitte Bardot is put on trial for murdering her lover. Through flashbacks, we see the story of her troubled youth unfold. On her own for the first time in the big city of Paris, she takes on a series of lovers, eventually settling on her sister's fiance, a composer. After their initial sexual attraction wears off, it turns out they have little in common and break up. She becomes destitute and eventually turns to prostitution while he becomes engaged again to her sister. This only enrages her further, leading to the murder. The court trial is more of a distraction than anything else, since she readily admits to the crime and the only question is whether or not it is a "crime of passion" which apparently carries a lighter sentence. The rest is nothing more than watching a very young Brigitte in a series of compromising situations, entertaining but hardly essential.