The Breakup (1970)

When the aspirant writer Charles Régnier, who is drug addicted and mentally ill, throws his four-year-old son Michel against the kitchen wall in a rage attack, his wife Hélène defends her son and herself, hitting Charles several times with a frying pan. Her neighbor takes Hélène and Michel to the hospital and the boy must be interned with a broken leg and concussion. Hélène works as bartender and has supported her family alone since her wealthy father-in-law Ludovic Régnier hates that Charles has married with someone uneducated from the lower classes. Hélène finds a low-budget boarding house nearby the hospital and rents a simple room to be close to her beloved son. Further, she hires a lawyer to get the divorce and the custody of Michel. Ludovic is advised by his lawyer that Hélène would win the custody and he hires the lowlife Paul Thomas, who is totally broken and desperately needs money, to find dirt evidences against the Hélène. The vile Paul lures Hélène saying that he is very ill and moves to the boarding house. After a while, he does not find anything against Hélène, and he decides to fabricate evidences to destroy her reputation. But things do not work as planned.