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| Cast overview, first billed only: | |||
| Jean-Louis Trintignant | ... |
Franz /
Francis
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| Philippe Noiret | ... |
Georges de Saxe /
Ses doubles
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Anicée Alvina | ... |
Carolina de Saxe
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| Sylvia Kristel | ... |
Diana Van Den Berg
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| Agostina Belli | ... |
Maria, la servande des Saxe
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Serge Marquand | ... |
Mathias
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Charles Millot | ... |
Un ravisseur
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| Vernon Dobtcheff | ... |
Un messager
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Jacques Seiler | ... |
Le chauffeur de taxi /
Le domestique d'Erica /
Le prêtre
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Michel Berto | ... |
L'adjoint du commissaire
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| Christine Boisson | ... |
Christina, la fille dans la malle /
Desdémone
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Marc Mazza | ... |
Un messager
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Jacques Doniol-Valcroze | ... |
Le commissaire Laurent
(as J. Doniol-Valcloze)
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Nathalie Zeiger | ... |
Tania, la fille aux chiens
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Joëlle Coeur | ... |
La mariée
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When Carolina (Anicee Alvina), the daughter of wealthy banker Georges de Saxe (Philippe Noiret), is reported kidnapped, it is upsetting to him even though he knows it isn't true. The kidnappers have taken the wrong person. The banker hires Frantz (Jean-Louis Trintignant) a disheveled, seedy detective to find his daughter and hide her safely away. She soon finds herself in a fantasy-land whorehouse, where all kinds of extreme perversions are routinely practiced. There, a near-double of her father whips and then seduces her. Eventually, she and the private eye escape or leave, having extorted the kidnapping money from the girl's father. Written by lament
A series of elegantly kinky erotic tableaux, strung together by a mock-thriller plot, this may be Alain Robbe-Grillet's most linear and accessible film. Mind you, an 'accessible' Robbe-Grillet is like a 'good' Ben Affleck movie. Strictly a relative term, and allowances have to be made.
The plot (as far as I can discern one) has Philippe Noiret as a corrupt tycoon teetering on the edge of bankruptcy. Desperate to raise a few francs, he decides to fake the kidnapping of his own daughter (Anicee Alvina) and pocket the ransom. He locks the girl up for safe-keeping in a deluxe Art Nouveau brothel, where he himself is a regular client.
In real life, this 'brothel' is the interior of the Palais Garnier - for years the theatre of the Paris Opera. This may be symbolic in some highly obscure way; offscreen voices keep warbling snatches of Il Trovatore. The randy Robbe-Grillet, meanwhile, indulges in all his usual fetishes: torture, lesbianism, necrophilia... One young lady has a 'close personal friendship' with a mastiff hound.
Participating in the fun and games are a young and exceptionally lovely Sylvia Kristel and French soft-porno legend Joelle Coeur. The images are so glacially beautiful, they look like a Helmut Newton photo album sprung to life. Yet are we to take this as a serious avant-garde experiment in the style of Alain Resnais? Or is it just a slice of arty smut? Robbe-Grillet himself seems not to know the answer. Or if he does, he's keeping it well-hidden.