One of Truffaut's lesser known and less successful films. The plot isn't bad - a sociologist interviews a woman in prison for killing her lover and falls in love with her. The girl is Bernadette Lafont, an actress I didn't recognise - maybe the film would've been more fun for me with someone I knew. Or more charming.
Lafont is pretty enough, goes topless in a few scenes, has lots of energy, running around like a maniac. She got on the nerves and can't sing.The overwhelming impression I carry away from this film is of her jabbering away.
Andre Dussolier is alright as the nerd who falls in love with her, Guy Marchand is a crappy longue singer who is one of Lafont's lovers, Charles Denner a rat exterminator, Claude Brasseur a lawyer, Philippe Leotard her husband.
The basic story is strong - man falls in love with woman, gets her out of prison, she frames him for murder. But its done comically and such movies are hard to pull off, to get the tone right. Truffaut doesn't.
I never really appreciated just how many Truffaut films were about innocent men falling for crazy mad arse bitches. I kind of felt this was inspired by shy academic directors who fall for their nutbag actresses, with the devoted secretary here (blonde, gorgeous, but with glasses) standing in for the continuity girl. He was also drawing from those 30s Hollywood madcap screwball comedies - and a death scene with someone falling off a castle feels very Vertigo.
It's full of random moments and characters: lounge singers, Marchant has a poster of Truffaut on his wall, the rat killer being a virgin. The ten year old filmmaker was pretty funny. That's the highlight of the film.
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