A philosophy professor tries to think his way out of wanting someone who doesn't want him back. Spoiler: it fails spectacularly.
A philosophy teacher restless with the need to do something with his life meets a young woman suspected of driving an artist to his death. He finds the very simple Cecilia irritating but develops a sexual rapport with her. Obsessed with the need to own and tormented by her inability to respond to him, he becomes increasingly violent in a quest he can't name - a quest that slowly begins to undermine his certainties.
Acting
Sophie Guillemin's maddening stillness vs Berling's unraveling intellect
Direction
Kahn lets scenes breathe until you squirm
Writing
Dialogue that sounds smart while revealing total stupidity
Director
Cédric Kahn
Trivia, insights & behind the scenes
Kahn adapted this from Alberto Moravia's 1960 novel, itself a dissection of Italian bourgeois boredom—transposed to '90s France, the class anxiety hits differently.
Robert Kramer, who plays the American painter Meyers, was himself an acclaimed underground filmmaker; his casting adds meta-layers about watching and being watched.
FR
