

In Lyon, where many are unemployed, Marie is a prostitute who loves her work: she's thoughtful and exuberant toward clients old and young, slim or flabby. One night, a homeless man sleeps in the foyer of her apartment house; she gives him a hot meal, then a place on the floor to sleep by her radiator, then she offers herself. She falls in love, giving him new life, clothes, a place to live. When he grouses that he must bar hop while she uses the flat for her work, she finds them a larger flat. He grows restless, seducing a manicurist and pressing her to prostitution. He's arrested for procuring, so Marie must decide what to do; he, too, must face the consequences of his choices.
Acting
Grinberg's feverish, unflinching openness—she commits completely.
Direction
Blier's signature provocation: comedy that chokes in your throat.
Writing
Dialogue that weaponizes charm against coherence.

Director
Bertrand Blier
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Bertrand Blier built his career on men who don't deserve the women obsessed with them—this is his most extreme case study, released when French cinema was wrestling with 'politically correct' as an American import.
Anouk Grinberg won Best Actress at Cannes for this—her acceptance speech reportedly baffled the jury, much like the film itself.