Rémi is a man trapped in a deteriorating marriage. When his wife is unexpectedly killed in a car accident, Rémi is left with his stepdaughter, Marion, who chooses to stay with him rather than live with her birth father. After the initial shock passes, Rémi is caught off-guard when Marion begins expressing her attraction to him. Initially repulsed, Marion's mature beauty wears him down as he finally caves to her seductions.
Acting
Patrick Dewaere's crumbling dignity in every close-up.
Direction
Blier makes the sordid look almost beautiful. Almost.
Score
Jazz that sounds like guilt and cigarettes.
Director
Bertrand Blier
Patrick Dewaere
Rémi
Ariel Besse
Marion
Maurice Ronet
Charly
Geneviève Mnich
Simone
Maurice Risch
Nicolas
Nathalie Baye
Charlotte
Nicole Garcia
Martine
Macha Méril
la Maîtresse de maison
Rose Thiéry
Madame Doullens
Pierre Le Rumeur
le pédiâtre
Catherine Alcover
le médecin S.O.S.
Henri-Jacques Huet
le Gérant du restaurant
Jacques Rispal
Taxi Driver
Maurice Biraud
le camionneur, témoin de l'accident
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Released same year as Mitterrand's election, the film sparked massive French debate about artistic freedom versus moral responsibility. It was a commercial hit anyway.
Ariel Besse was 15 during filming; her mother and Blier supervised the intimate scenes. Patrick Dewaere, already struggling with depression, would die by suicide two years later—his haunted performance here feels unbearably prescient.
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