Dominique (Marie Dubois) can't stand that Julie (Carole Laure) is with her husband Henri Savin (Yves Montand), who owns a transport company. Dominique follows Julie and jumps of a cliff, in a way that Julie could be blamed, especially when they find a ransom note. But Savin thinks about a way out.
You cannot discuss this film without talking about its ending. This film is ALL about its ending. All the reviews are about it. It's the type of ending that evokes discussions. The kind of plot in which you have to accept A LOT of unlikely events as a viewer. I liked it anyway, as the setting is quite wonderful and it feels almost like a film in itself.
There are other interesting things though. There's a great deal of attention for the lighting in this film, which is nice. Also, as many others have mentioned, the part of Marie Dubois is terrific. She is so important for the film, that when she is gone from the story, the film collapses a bit. Director Alain Corneau took a chance with his own screenplay. Because what follows is a long and dragging part in the middle. They could of course have chosen to keep her for the whole film, to continue the suspense, but in that way her role wouldn't feel as powerful as it does now, and the story would be more about exploiting the madness until the end, probably more like something like Cape Fear, which is also nice, but the story works better now this way, I think. I rate it 6/10.
You cannot discuss this film without talking about its ending. This film is ALL about its ending. All the reviews are about it. It's the type of ending that evokes discussions. The kind of plot in which you have to accept A LOT of unlikely events as a viewer. I liked it anyway, as the setting is quite wonderful and it feels almost like a film in itself.
There are other interesting things though. There's a great deal of attention for the lighting in this film, which is nice. Also, as many others have mentioned, the part of Marie Dubois is terrific. She is so important for the film, that when she is gone from the story, the film collapses a bit. Director Alain Corneau took a chance with his own screenplay. Because what follows is a long and dragging part in the middle. They could of course have chosen to keep her for the whole film, to continue the suspense, but in that way her role wouldn't feel as powerful as it does now, and the story would be more about exploiting the madness until the end, probably more like something like Cape Fear, which is also nice, but the story works better now this way, I think. I rate it 6/10.