This was a 1963 chance for a big television audience to see Delphine Seyrig who had been winning best actress prizes left right and centre following the successes of Last Year at Marienbad and recently Muriel.
She played international concert pianist Catherine Miller. I think it sails close to elements of Seyrig's own life... a husband in America she doesn't want to contact (for ten years she had been Delphine Youngerman), sole parent of a boy, not an actress but a concert pianist... torn between looking after her boy and pursuing her career.
And you always get a lot of Seyrig anyway in her roles... the dreamy speech mannerisms, the politeness, the other-worldly charm, the fierceness.
Gilles (Dominique Paturel), a charming and cultured critic, probes gently into her private life, something Delphine Seyrig was notorious for wanting to keep private, and sure enough Catherine Miller lays into him mistrustfully; but it is also a meeting of minds and she looks forward to seeing him again.
During their conversation she makes a slip of the tongue - Ravel's three concertos - which Gilles picks up on.
So far we have a two-hander piece of drama about the press intruding into the private lives of artists, but now comes a somewhat surreal twist.
She gets a phone call from her impresario Max (Gabriel Jabbour), putting her under pressure to work ever harder. Indeed, to do the impossible. He and conductor Philip Winterburg (Kajio Pawlowski) want her to fit in a performance of Ravel's 3rd Piano Concerto.
Impossible! Any fule kno Ravel only composed two piano concertos. A quick internet search would solve this, but this is 1963 and some convincing documents are enough to disquiet the tired pianist, and now, blimey! Up comes impresario Max with the score! "You've already recorded it three times!" he says. "You played it 34 times last year!" He calls in a creepy doctor to examine her.
This seems to me a high quality TV film crafted around Seyrig and elements of Marienbad, again playing with the idea of someone trying to convince her of memories she does not have.
Paturel and Seyrig fit well together; and here's a notably assured performance from an 11 year-old Didier Haudepin. It had apparently been suggested that her own son Duncan play the role, but she said no - that really would have been confusing!
