"Our story" starts not unlike "Before Sunrise" which came a decade later, with an encounter on a train. For a few brief minutes, it looks like it's even going to develop in that direction, until the film takes a sharp turn and starts to look like Pirandello's "Six characters in search of an author" as Robert (Alain Delon) and Donatienne (Nathalie Baye) try to decide who is a minor character in whose story.
This is not the super-cool Alain Delon that we are used to, but middle-aged, confused, dejected and sometime even comical, clinging to bottles and cans and glasses of beer which becomes the recurring motif in the movie. The story starts to get surreal as an ever-growing cast rampages through the affluent neighbourhood in the middle of the night in amorous and other pursuits. Superbly mesmerising Nathalie Baye starting out as the mysterious woman on the train becomes something like a particle in the quantum theory, changing constantly even as the observer observes.
And yet, there is meaning to all the apparent madness, and everything ties together quite well in the end. Those who must have a logical explanation for everything will be easily satisfied, but those looking behind the surface will find ample food for thought. Fantastic movie.
This is not the super-cool Alain Delon that we are used to, but middle-aged, confused, dejected and sometime even comical, clinging to bottles and cans and glasses of beer which becomes the recurring motif in the movie. The story starts to get surreal as an ever-growing cast rampages through the affluent neighbourhood in the middle of the night in amorous and other pursuits. Superbly mesmerising Nathalie Baye starting out as the mysterious woman on the train becomes something like a particle in the quantum theory, changing constantly even as the observer observes.
And yet, there is meaning to all the apparent madness, and everything ties together quite well in the end. Those who must have a logical explanation for everything will be easily satisfied, but those looking behind the surface will find ample food for thought. Fantastic movie.