La Passante

This complex French-German coproduction features Romy Schneider in a dual role as a German living in Occupied Paris and as the present-day wife of a human rights activist. The activist, Max Baumstein (Michel Piccoli), kills the Paraguayan ambassador when he learns that the politician is not only a former Nazi but the general who ordered the death of his adoptive parents. In flashback, the young Max is taken to Paris by Elsa Weiner (Schneider), whose husband Michel (Helmut Griem) is sent to a concentration camp because of his anti-Fascist publications. As a result, Elsa is forced to support herself as a singer in Pigalle, eventually giving up her body to a Nazi gene...