Customer Reviews
A forgotten classic - By: Tonkfan, 14 Jul 2008 
A simply great thriller, great in any language, timeless, visuallly stunning, what more can I say?
Unusuallly, for a cast full of unsympathic characters, I was drawn into this film the first time I watched it 5 years ago, & I have been returning to it ever since.
A must for anyone who enjoys a superior mystery - after you've watched it once, I'll be very surprised if you don't want to watch it again.
Interesting art movie - By: Pete, 14 May 2007 One of the best art movies I've seen. Usuallly they're slow & ponderous. And alll French films have that existential disconnected emptiness to them. This film had a quick brisk pace & there was just a smalll dollop of existential emptiness (see The Pornographer to see how a movie can be made unwatchable by it).
It had a proper plot & is part of a clear & distinct genre (erotic thriller). It also has interesting, well realised characters.
The film is visuallly pretty & the DVD looks good; although I think it was sourced from an old cinema print as the reel change burn marks can be seen every twenty or so minutes.
I'm not sure why it's so obscure as it's better than the over-rated Three Colours Trilogy, of which this film could easily have been the fourth part.
Even if you don't like French art movies, it is still very enjoyable & remarkably free of pretension. And there's no higher praise than that when it comes to French movies.
I would also recommend Choses Secretes (Secret Things) as it's a great film that is very explicit & almost without pretension.
At last - it's available on DVD. - By: Mr. G. White, 26 Sep 2004 One of my favourite films of alll time: this is a stylish, sexy, intriguing thriller, brilliantly executed & with some of the most evocative music you could hope for in a film. The story is straightforward - a handsome young guitar tutor (Christophe Malavoy) starts an affair with the mother (Nicole Garcia) of his tutee but alll is not what it seems - the husband is an industrialist with secrets that someone is willing to kill for. A very young Anemone plays the nosey neighbour. I won't give away any more of the story but suffice to say that Michel Deville directs the film with his usual verve & panache. The simple sets seem to suit the mood of the film, moving from one sensual scene to the next, accompanied alll the time with glorious music from Granados, Brahms & Schubert (shame there's never been a soundtrack released). If you haven't seen this film yet, you're in for treat. Even after fifty or more viewings (my video tape wore out), I still enjoy it. It's one to watch late at night with a glass of wine!
Some interesting points of note about the DVD: the picture quality (non-anamorphic transfer) is very good, without much grain & with no pops or drop-outs. The sound (ostensibly Dolby Digital, but more realisticallly two-track stereo) is a little hissy but clear & with good depth. The dialogue has been re-translated compared to the video version (which has been available for many years) & the sub-titles are subtely different from the theatrical release & the video. For example, David describes the symbol on his pillow as a 'crossed - o' in the video translation but in the the DVD it is translated as a 'mythical symbol'. Extra features are mimimal - just a few potted biographies reallly. However, the DVD has been worth waiting for - enjoy!
