Défense de savoir

More a thriller than a really political movie, it's a family business: Nadine Trintignant directs her then-husband Jean-Louis and even their own daughter ,the ill-fated Marie ; politics remain vague though Michel Bouquet ( who seems to have been borrowed from Chabrol's "la femme infidèle" ot "la rupture" ) and his accomplice Claude Piéplu ( fresh from Chabrol's "les noces rouges") may represent the (far) right wing .

The screenplay,which uses too many flashbacks , is somewhat desultory and it takes all Michel Bouquet's talent to accept such a badly written character. The main originality is the real identity of Charles Denner's murderer ; as a red herring ,Bernadette Laffont 's guilt does not convince a single minute .Juliet Berto represents the post-68 daughter ,at odds with bourgeois daddy the average viewer has seen a hundred times or more .