A Mocky-style detective film. A dead body is found, daffodils on his chest. Investigators, Jean-Pierre Mocky himself as a member of Scotland Yard, with Isabelle Nanty as a policewoman, lead the investigation (the credibility is very low!). All this in a bourgeois and capitalist environment. Where Jean-Pierre Mocky of course takes advantage of it to pass on his vision. And treat it in his own way. And with his sense of distribution, always phenomenal. The original novel is English, and the British side is preserved (the names of characters for example) and this gives an anachronistic side to the whole that is part of the artistic gesture of Jean-Pierre Mocky.
The whole thing works. The director knows how to do it: he manages to maintain a coherence in the whole, in spite of the apparent inconsistencies; he knows how to cut a scene and has a know-how to edit all that. And he knows how to mark and make interesting or recognizable a character, even if he appears little during the film.
We follow the plot. And it may not be crazy enough, for the time being. The acting may seem rough or offbeat, but it gives the film a patina. And the plot is secondary, admittedly, because it is the Mockian bestiary that interests us: Richard Bohringer, Isabelle Nanty, Denis Lavant, but also Bin Yin, Laura Mélinand or Alain Bouzigues.
The whole thing works. The director knows how to do it: he manages to maintain a coherence in the whole, in spite of the apparent inconsistencies; he knows how to cut a scene and has a know-how to edit all that. And he knows how to mark and make interesting or recognizable a character, even if he appears little during the film.
We follow the plot. And it may not be crazy enough, for the time being. The acting may seem rough or offbeat, but it gives the film a patina. And the plot is secondary, admittedly, because it is the Mockian bestiary that interests us: Richard Bohringer, Isabelle Nanty, Denis Lavant, but also Bin Yin, Laura Mélinand or Alain Bouzigues.