A difficult shoot - Truffaut and Raoul Coutard disagreed about the lighting (it was their last collaboration) leaving it down to Jeanne Moreau to have to explain to the different male actors their roles. It was Truffaut's least favourite film. Hitch liked the poisoned Arak scene but said he would have made Moreau put a cushion under the man's head so he could have died more comfortably. (Whilst that might have been a nice touch, it wouldn't fit with her blind revenge character.)
It comes over as very nimbly shot and edited like lightning (Claudine Bouché - her next film, six years later, was Emmannuelle!) The men seem like shits (the only thing they have in common is the hunt and women) and it's almost as though Truffaut is criticising himself for his womanising ways (it was co-written by Jean-Louis Richard, based on Cornell Woolrich). Not sure you can suffocate a man in a cupboard under the stairs, but hey ho, Truffaut would say I'm being one of Hitch's 'plausibles'.
So, the murder victims are Claude Rich (from balcony), Michel Bouquet (in his besotted confusion; poisoning), Michel Lonsdale (cupboard), Charles Denner (artist shot by Diana's arrow) and Daniel Boulanger (murdered in prison - Truffaut doing Bresson). Loved Moreau playing with Cookie, and the way the innocent school teacher (Alexandra Stewart) is greeted by her pupils on returning to school. Jean-Claude Brialy is the friend who finally recognises her.
Herrmann's score is amazing. Also loved the concierge, and the scarf that floats over the city, and the girl who says 'If you remember me why don't you ever say hello when you see me in the street?', and the cutting of the concert scene, and the drawings of Moreau.
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| Artwork by Charles Matton |
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