The English-language title of this Marcel Carne cinematic exercise is Juliette or Key of Dreams. The central character is not Juliette (Susan Clouthier), however, but a young incipient thief named Michel (Gerard Phillipe). Smitten by Juliette's charms, Michel steals for her sake, and ends up in prison. He "escapes" durance vile through his many daydreams, most of these staged symbolically, with Juliette as the "ideal" lover. Though Juliette ou le Clef des Songes, like most of Carne's later works, was considered unfashionable by New Wave critics of the 1950s, the film holds up pretty well when seen today. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi