Despite its merits, Michel Deville's previous foray into the Mystery genre, 'Eaux profondes' of Patricia Highsmith, had not exactly proved an unqualified success and could be accounted a 'near miss'.
He has scored a palpable hit here however with this adaptation of 'Sur Terre comme au Ciel' by René Belletto which had won the Le Grand Prix for detective fiction.
Belletto's narrative style is not to everyone's taste but he has created a gallery of intriguing, shadowy and morally ambiguous characters.
When a book becomes a film and text becomes image, the casting can very often disappoint but here Deville has chosen well.
Nicole Garcia is the femme fatale who wastes no time in bedding Christophe Malavoy as the unsuspecting guitar teacher who has been been hired to tutor her daughter. Her husband is played by Michel Piccoli whose unpleasantness is concealed behind an apparent Bourgeois civility. Although a small role, where this brilliant actor is concerned, no part is small. The two most fascinating characters are Edwige and Daniel played by Anémone and Richard Bohringer. She is a much too inquisitive neighbour whose facial disfigurement in the novel has been changed for filmic purposes to a pronounced limp. Anémone looks as if she has stepped straight out of an Almodóvar movie and gives a wonderfully quirky performance. Bohringer is a hit man whose attraction to Christophe is subtly depicted as being homosexual in nature. Physically the actor is a far cry from the Daniel of Belletto's imagining but his hoarse delivery and underlying menace are utterly mesmerising.
Plenty of twists and turns here and a surprise ending. Well it certainly surprised me!
Raymonde Guyot deservedly picked up a Cesar for her superlative editing whilst the music of Granados, Villa-Lobos and the divine Schubert is used to great effect.
Deville himself was awarded the Cesar for his direction and although his entire output could never be described as 'mainstream' this stylish and sophisticated neo-noir is arguably his most accessible and accomplished work.
He has scored a palpable hit here however with this adaptation of 'Sur Terre comme au Ciel' by René Belletto which had won the Le Grand Prix for detective fiction.
Belletto's narrative style is not to everyone's taste but he has created a gallery of intriguing, shadowy and morally ambiguous characters.
When a book becomes a film and text becomes image, the casting can very often disappoint but here Deville has chosen well.
Nicole Garcia is the femme fatale who wastes no time in bedding Christophe Malavoy as the unsuspecting guitar teacher who has been been hired to tutor her daughter. Her husband is played by Michel Piccoli whose unpleasantness is concealed behind an apparent Bourgeois civility. Although a small role, where this brilliant actor is concerned, no part is small. The two most fascinating characters are Edwige and Daniel played by Anémone and Richard Bohringer. She is a much too inquisitive neighbour whose facial disfigurement in the novel has been changed for filmic purposes to a pronounced limp. Anémone looks as if she has stepped straight out of an Almodóvar movie and gives a wonderfully quirky performance. Bohringer is a hit man whose attraction to Christophe is subtly depicted as being homosexual in nature. Physically the actor is a far cry from the Daniel of Belletto's imagining but his hoarse delivery and underlying menace are utterly mesmerising.
Plenty of twists and turns here and a surprise ending. Well it certainly surprised me!
Raymonde Guyot deservedly picked up a Cesar for her superlative editing whilst the music of Granados, Villa-Lobos and the divine Schubert is used to great effect.
Deville himself was awarded the Cesar for his direction and although his entire output could never be described as 'mainstream' this stylish and sophisticated neo-noir is arguably his most accessible and accomplished work.