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This is not what you can call an "easy -watching " film.Only three characters ,an austere screenplay based on a Roger Vailland novel.Although by no means a nouvelle vague style work,the cast and credits over a lugubrious landscape and an ominous music have a Chabrolesque touch .A couple whose marriage is on the rocks goes hunting in the misty country "look,the husband says ,the landscape is like a woman taking off her clothes".The slow-moving story may infuriate some but it would be too bad to call it a day after the first fifteen minutes for it is par excellence the kind of film which grows on you.The woman who feels she is getting old (an admirable Simone Signoret)takes the young lovely school mistress (a sensitive mysterious Alexandra Stewart) to her home;in order to infuriate her hubby,she begins to ask her questions about her very intimate life .Roberte feels that time is passing her by.She has become an alcoholic,her bottle of whiskey within easy reach.Her behavior becomes ambiguous when she begins to transform Helene the young girl mentally as well as physically :she takes her to the casino ;she's afraid her husband might sleep with her young rival ,but in a memorable scene ,she styles the hair of the girl:Signoret is so subtle an actress she can suggest many nuances .Does she want to recreate her youth, her beauty which is slowly fading away?Does she want to win back her husband 's love through a third part? Is she a frustrated lesbian?Claude Chabrol I mention above was certainly influenced by this sequence for his own "les biches" (1967) where there is a similar scene between Stephane Audran and Jacqueline Sassard.In a word:not for all tastes ,but rewarding.
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