Sautet had jettisoned his films noirs influences which gave the great "Classes tous Risques" and the good "L'Arme à Gauche" .One could have thought that "Max et les Ferrailleurs" his best film in the seventies would herald a return to form as well as a return to what he did best.
But "Vincent François ,Paul et les Autres " had continued his chronicles of bourgeois-with-a-tender-heart which "Cesar et Rosalie" had begun ("les Choses de la Vie" is a different matter since it has an emotional power the subsequent works have not) "Mado" is more of the same.Bourgeois "in danger of despair" to quote Sautet himself.And zombie Dutronc on top of that.The scene when the cars get bogged down in the mud is the most grotesque metaphor I 've ever seen in a movie."It's the movie itself which gets bogged down " sneered the critics at the time.
Romy Schneider's fans ,beware!Her appearance does not exceed five minutes (in a 2hours+ movie)!
