The Widow Couderc (Romans Durs)

A man and a woman are drawn together in this dark, existentialist masterpiece by Georges Simenon.

Two strangers meet on a bus along a dusty road in rural France. Tati is a tough, work-worn widow, who runs the farm her late husband left behind, while trying to keep out of the way of her predatory in-laws. Jean is an odd, quiet man, recently out of prison, and in search of a new life. These lost souls recognize something in each other, and Jean becomes Tati’s lodger and farmworker.

In the still...