It begins with a news item and it does not bode well ,for this opening scene ,in spite of talented Guy Marchand , is utterly ridiculous .
Marie Trintignant was nevertheless a promising director back in 1969;a former editor,she made then a thriller which was thoroughly out of step with the routine thrillers of the time ,"Le Voleur De Crimes ":it was the story of a young man who,after watching a woman commit suicide ,claims responsibility for the "crime" in an anonymous letter he sends to the Police.Even more disturbing :the part of this mythomaniac man was played by the director's husband,Jean-Louis Trintignant ,with his ideal-son-in-law look .
The husband /actor wife/director continued in "Defense De Savoir" ,a conventional attempt at a wholly political movie at the time there were oodles of them ,in the wake of May 68 events.
"Ca n'Arrive Qu'Aux Autres " ,many people consider his best and her greatest commercial success, depicted the tragedy of a couple (Mastroianni/Deneuve) whose little girl had died .
Here they are again:husband /actor wife/director; the subject is jealousy but it's obvious that the real subject of the movie is feminism ; thus the last third of the movie is the most interesting: the husband can cheat on his wife ,but the lover he sleeps with must not be important at all , she is only a body .When his wife tells him she had a love affair with a man which was not only sexual , he cannot stand it: that she deceives him with a man she admires and with whom she talks art and intellectual issues ("there's a real friendship between us" ) , it's more than he can take .Although the scene is not really violent , the husband's macho words do not cut ,they bite .
Unfortunately , most of the time ,the movie is dull and insifignant :judo,scene in a sauna with female nudity ,and to combine business with pleasure , a trip to Morocco,complete with the tanner quarter in Fez (without the stench),and an incongruous police intervention among the harmless tourists .
Trintignant and Stefania Sandrelli -who had already teamed up before- are certainly nice actors and it's certainly pleasant to see a young Nathalie Baye .But they are all spoilt in a listless effort.
Sorry ,Mrs Trintignant,but it does not make it.
