Kirpianuscus about desire. about the role of the other. about flesh and love and hidden by yourself sins, about the search of yourself and about the fall of a night.about justice. a film who mix, in wise manner, the seduction with fascination. a work of beauty and dark secrets and images of victims and fragile intentions. it could be the film of Mathieu Amalric. like many of his films because he has the science and the gift to propose the right solution for the tone of story. because it is a film of details, about a not special event, in which the states of characters remains the only significant thing. so, a film who must see. for the acting first. then, for atmosphere.

writers_reign Laden with awards and nominations (well deserved) Mathieu Amlaric is always a good bet, whether acting, directing, writing, or, as here, all three, he seldom lets you down and on the whole opts for interesting and/or unusual projects. Writing and acting with his real life partner (he was, at one time, married to another fine if somewhat neglected actress Jeanne Balibar) Stephanie Cleau, not exactly chopped liver if anyone asks you, he has elected as source material a non-linear novel by Georges Simenon, arguably the most adapted novelist of all time, and the partners have done an excellent job in both departments. The film's strength is in keeping you guessing whether you are watching an account of an intense affair - a la liaison pornographique with Nathalie Baye - a crime passionel, a courtroom drama or, as it turns out, all three. This is top of the line whichever way you look at it and the DVD is already on my list.

newjersian Reading that the movie is a thriller based on Georges Simenon's novel, I expected to see a good French adaption of the book. However, there was no suspension and no thrills in what Mathieu Amalric did with a good story. Even the episodes shown on TV channel ID are more intriguing and more entertaining. I am always wondering why the French movie makers tend to mess up their stories. Somebody can call it an intelligent movie, but it looks more like a pretentious and muddled change of scenes. Simenon's story had a great potential, but Mathieu Amalric succeeded to kill it on the screen with both his script and his direction.

SnoopyStyle Julien Gahyde (Mathieu Amalric) and Esther Despierre are former classmates and having an affair. Julien is married to Delphine with a daughter Suzanne. When Esther's pharmacist husband is found dead, Julien is brought in by the police for an interview. Then Delphine is found dead and the police suspects poisoning.I find this a muddled, confused, and flat telling of a possible murder mystery. The odd thing is that it's deliberately muddled, confused and flat. It's reworking the traditional crime drama. It's admirable but I don't think it works. The tension is all gone. There are no thrills. I don't think we even see the dead bodies. Mathieu Amalric is a great actor but the flat telling keeps the audience at a distance from the characters. There are moments where one gets glimpses something deeper in his character but he keeps the mask on for most of the movie. It's hard to say if the truth is revealed and that's kind of the point of the movie.