Catherine Deneuve at her late 60s best, looking like an ice queen with her sexual flame burning underneath. She plays a sort of Holly Golightly character - although not strictly a hooker, her brother pimps her out to rich men, but she falls for journalist Sami Frey. She keeps going back and forth with Frey thinking he's enough for her, and Deneuve being unable to resist the blandishments of her no good brother and the wealthy men said brother lines her up with.
Deneuve is really gorgeous in this film - I think she was better looking in contemporary films. Frey is handsome but is character is a chauvinistic dick. There's lots of really dull talk about fidelity with Frey being possessive and Deneuve tempted to want to run off with rich guys (one played by American actor Robert Webber), plus scenes of cars driving and groovy fashions and late 60s hipsters hanging out in bars dancing, talking and smoking.
The story is so repetitive - Frey chases after Deneuve, who goes for him... but can't resist the lure of rich man. Then Frey gets jealous, dumps her, she goes after him again... It goes on and on and is a very dull film.
It's based on an old novel which had far more story and made more sense, i.e. it showed that Manon didn't want to live in poverty and needed wealth (there's no poverty here, nothing to motivate Manon's activities really - I think Frey is supposed to be less rich than her lovers but he has a good job and can afford upgrades to first class airfairs), and one of Manon's rich lovers wound up having a duel with her boyfriend (I kept expecting Robert Webber and Sami Frey to come to blows but it never happens), and Manon dies after she goes on the lam (giving the ending some kick - here she just runs off into the sunset, going hitchhiking with Frey). It is livened by the star's considerable beauty, who wears a variety of interesting outfits including swimsuits, takes a bath, lounges around in bed and on yachts, etc.
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