Manneken Pis on AllMovie

This almost mystical Belgian romance centers upon a young man who is unable to utter the three little words his girl friend most wants to hear. Harry is the emotionally damaged young man who boards a streetcar driven by pretty Jeanne. They briefly flirt before he disembarks and heads for an apartment building. There he sees the body of a tenant who has just committed suicide being carted off. Harry immediately talks the aged housekeeper, Denise, into letting him the room. Denise is haunted by the death of her lover who was killed by a bomb at the end of WW II; a chunk of the fatal bomb is enshrined in her living room. Harry gets a job as a dishwasher in a run-down restaurant. Later he learns that Jeanne lives on the same city block. She instigates a romance between them, but finds him emotionally distanced and unable to commit to her. Still, she loves him and patiently draws the terrible story from Harry. When he was quite young, he and his happy family were on vacation. At his insistence, the family stopped at a railroad crossing so he could urinate. Just as he left the car, he told his mother, "I love you." As he emptied his little bladder, a train hit the car and killed his family. Harry blames those three words and hasn't spoken them since the tragedy. To force him to say "I love you" again, Jeanne enlists the aide of Denise.