Set in provincial sleepy town, as major Roger Muller leaves his habitual brothel, hateable Dr. André Stembert is leaving her troubled wife Mathilda for good. Their path cross. Roger, who loved Mathilda in the past, urges André to return to her, in fact menacing him: if you split, I'll kill you. Mathilda's been drinking heavily, mourning their dead daughter, and has a loaded gun. Which, in the classic tradition of the dark "femme fatale", can only mean trouble to them all, in varied degrees. Roger has most to loose, Mathilda has some sore wounds from the Muller family, André's death will still bother the couple of lovers even after his grave.
Manipulation, chance and deceit ensue. In that, it's a cautionary tale.
Not in the logical tradition, but in the messy, confused, "it could happen to you" vein, this is an entertaining film. Bulgarian Hélène has a lot of screen time, mostly her face, the male audience will be pleased, as she's got something most actress don't: uniqueness.
Madeleine M. also has her share of denial and violence, below the surface of a bourgeoise provincial nice attitude. My favourite character is Hélène, Roger's devoted old secretary, nosy spinster who means well but is scathed by Roger. As with the cop's chief, from the moment Roger gets emotional he looses his touch with firm ground, as we all do I suppose :).
Skinny Eastern beauty Anca Radici is Roger's hooker-psychologist-companion-sad & dejected lover, but she's mostly an enslaved woman, which shows when her pimp and another shady character pop up from a door when Roger wanted a fake medical death certificate, late in the movie.
My favourite phrase is from the car mechanic, about Eastern Europe: (bothered) "Roumania, Bulgaria, all this countries that end in "ia", they all stay in the same place!".
Enjoy!
