¡Atención, bandidos!

The director of 'A Man and a Woman' turns his attention toward the two passions closest to a Frenchman's heart (love and larceny) in a film that, in memory of his earlier hit, might have been called 'A Father and a Daughter'. The former is a dedicated family man and discriminating high class thief who loves his wife and daughter as much as his work; the latter is an adoring young woman who can't accept her father's vocation after he risks their security in a plot to avenge the death of his wife. The film marks yet another Old World spin on American B-movie conventions, in this instance more polished (and certainly more fluffy) than its nouvelle-vague prototypes, but with a surplus of Gallic whimsy and fatalism to recommend it. It's not quite a caper, not quite a character study, and not quite a combination of the two; by now, with 27 films to his credit, Claude Lelouch is merely coasting.