This disturbing film directed by Christian Vincent has one of Daniel Auteuil's best and most versatile performances. His 'partner', played with icy intensity by Isabelle Huppert, not only has a sadistic streak, but is wholly self-absorbed. She eyes Auteuil as he suffers because of her callous infidelity with the detachment of an abortionist crushing the head of an infant who has dared to scream after supposedly being 'disposed of' from the womb. Auteuil is at his wits' end, raging, cursing, hugging her, crying, discussing it helplessly with his friends, and the eye at the centre of the storm is the imperturbable Huppert, whose glassy stare and frozen visage are as relentless as a harpy. One puzzle: why does Auteuil go around unshaven all the time looking like a vagabond? So does his best friend. Is this chic? Looks a mess to me! Maybe Huppert has given up on trying to persuade him to shave and hates having her face scratched? Although she is the kind of character who would have pulled the wings off flies as a child, Auteuil's charm does not wholly compensate for his defiantly scruffy appearance, and as a tidy gal, that must get up her nose. This gut-wrenching story of the destruction of a relationship is from a novel, and with a screenplay by the author Dan Franck, who wrote the brilliant 1998 book 'Bohemes' ('Bohemian Paris', Grove Press, New York, 2001), perhaps the best survey of the Montmartre and Montparnasse days ever written. Let's hope it is not autobiographical, as if so, he must still be suffering. However, the detail is so precise, I fear it might all be true. There is a fine performance also by Laurent Lerel, as an au pair girl who loves Autueil from afar, and wishes to comfort him in his distress, but he never notices her. What a sad, sad tale.
