La Truite (1982)

User Rating:

6.8/10   

Director:

Joseph Losey

Writers:

Roger Vailland (novel)
Monique Lange (adaptation) ...

Release Date:

22 September 1982 (France)

Genre:

Drama

Plot Keywords:

Trout | Gay | Ménage À Trois | Female Frontal Nudity | Temple

Awards:

1 win & 1 nomination

Cast

Isabelle Huppert	...	Frédérique
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	Rambert
Jeanne Moreau	...	Lou
Daniel Olbrychski	...	Saint-Genis
Jacques Spiesser	...	Galuchat
Isao Yamagata	...	Daigo Hamada
Jean-Paul Roussillon	...	Verjon
Roland Bertin	...	The Count
Lisette Malidor	...	Mariline
Craig Stevens	...	Carter, Company President
Ruggero Raimondi	...	Party Guest
Alexis Smith	...	Gloria
Lucas Belvaux	...	Le commis
Pierre Forget	...	Père de Frédérique
Ippo Fujikawa	...	Kumitaro

Also Known As:

La Truite (The Trout) (USA)
The Trout (USA)

Runtime:

103 min

Country:

France

Language:

French | Japanese

Color:

Color (Fujicolor)

Aspect Ratio:

1.66 : 1

Certification:

USA:R

Filming Locations:

Jura, France

Company:

Gaumont

Soundtrack:

Stand Up And Shout It Out

Losey's Low Point - Very Fishy!!

La Truite opens to the unedifying sight of a glum-faced Isabelle Huppert squeezing sperm out of a dead fish. No prizes, then, for guessing this is a drama of sexual dysfunction. Huppert has a homosexual husband (Jacques Spiesser) who is unable to consummate their union. (Nor is he able to act, incidentally, but in a film this bad that is no grounds for divorce.)

Naive souls may imagine that a severe lack of sex explains the scowl of dour misery that Huppert tries to pass off as a performance. Not a bit of it! Her character made a vow in her teens to leech everything she could out of men - without ever once gratifying their sexual desires. So when two mega-rich businessmen (Daniel Olbrychski and Jean-Pierre Cassel) just happen to wander into her local bowling alley and find her simply irresistible...

Sorry, but I don't know which is more improbable. Members of the style-conscious haute bourgeoisie going bowling, or any person - male or female, gay or straight - becoming obsessed with Isabelle Huppert. If Losey had only shot this film with Brigitte Bardot back in the 60s (as he longed to do) then we might just about buy into its ludicrous plot. Given the sour-faced Huppert and her gaping charisma deficit, he was a fool even to try.

La Truite is a textbook illustration of the melodramatic bathos and aesthetic self-abuse that Losey could fall into when he didn't have Harold Pinter (or some other ace script-writer) to keep him in line. Only a hypnotic Jeanne Moreau (as Cassel's aging and ill-treated wife) does anything that resembles acting. Spare a thought, though, for the stunning Afro-Caribbean dancer Lisette Malidor - wasted here in a minor role. In any sane universe, she could have played Huppert's part.