''La Clé sur la porte'' (meaning "The Key is in the door") is a novel written by

Marie Cardinal Marie Cardinal (born Simone Odette Marie-Thérèse Cardinal; 9 March 1929 – 9 May 2001) was a French novelist and occasional actress. Life and career Cardinal was born in French Algeria and was the sister of the film director Pierre Cardinal ...

and published in 1972. It is the story of a woman trying to reexamine her own values and free herself from social restraints after suffering a lifetime of oppression. The novel describes her self-therapy; a kind of experiment, allowing her children the freedom she never had in her own strict upbringing, and her ‘interviews’ with their friends.

Plot summary

A forty-year-old woman describes her life living in an apartment in Paris with her three children and their friends. As a community experiment based on total freedom the key lives permanently over the door and everyone comes and goes as they please. She contrasts her formerly strict and closed world against the free one of today; obedience to values against wavering anarchy; alacrity and faineance; hard loneliness versus warm fraternity. Marie Cardinal invites us to question these themes in this personal and passionate book, rich in humour and emotion. ''La Clé sur la porte'' is a serious and picturesque novel of today's youth, written by an elder who knew how to commingle.

Adaptation

A movie with the same title was adapted in 1977 by Writer/Director

André Weinfeld André Weinfeld (born 6 April 1947) is a French and American film and television producer, director, screenwriter, cinematographer, photographer, and journalist. Early life After receiving a master's degree in psychology and French literature ...

from the novel. It starred

Annie Girardot Annie Suzanne Girardot (25 October 193128 February 2011) was a French actress. She often played strong-willed, independent, hard-working, and often lonely women, imbuing her characters with an earthiness and reality that endeared her to women un ...

and

Patrick Dewaere Patrick Dewaere (26 January 1947 – 16 July 1982) was a French film actor. Born in Saint-Brieuc, Côtes-d'Armor, he was the son of French actress Mado Maurin. An actor from a young age, his career lasted more than 21 years until his suicide in ...

and was directed by

Yves Boisset Yves Félix Claude Boisset (14 March 1939 – 31 March 2025) was a French film director and screenwriter. Early life Boisset was born 14 March 1939, in Paris, France. He studied at the Institut des hautes études cinématographiques (IDHEC). ...

References

*Marie Cardinal, ''La Clé sur la porte'' (Paris: Livre de Poche, 1972) 1972 French novels Feminist novels Novels set in Paris French novels adapted into films {{1970s-novel-stub