(Une Histoire Simple) examines the behavior of its characters as
dictated by their environment. Romy Schneider plays Marie, a
fortysomething working woman whose tiresome existence has
prompted her to inaugurate an affair. Marie eventually parts with her
lover, aborting the pregnancy resulting from her liaison. She pauses
long enough to take stock of her current situation, and to muse on its
possible outcome. Though exuding star quality throughout, Romy
Schneider is thoroughly believable as the essentially ordinary,
nonspectacular heroine. Her behavior is not that of a wealthy
play-actress but a genuine bourgeois woman emotionally hemmed in
by her social strata.
Hal Erickson