This was the fifth and last collaboration of Romy Schneider and Claude Sautet. Sautet did for her what von Sternberg did for Marlene Dietrich--gave her star quality in well-written vehicles. Cesar et Rosalie and Les choses de la vie are wonderful to watch today; they have pace and drama, plenty of verve. Une Histoire simple, by contrast, has little drama, slack pace and characters you don't get involved with. The group dynamic-the characters all working in the same company-lowers the interest. It's a film made to please a feminist segment of the population, like Mazursky's An Unmarried Woman.
Review of A Simple Story
