PodBill Just what I expected

Beystiman It's fun, it's light, [but] it has a hard time when its tries to get heavy.

Stoutor It's not great by any means, but it's a pretty good movie that didn't leave me filled with regret for investing time in it.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

Haddoque One of the movies that keep on running long after you've stopped watching. One of those paradoxical stories, that become the more confused the more one understands. One of those one is tempted to watch again and again, hoping to understand this time, at the same time anxious to spoil the commitment by finally finding out what it's all about. Perhaps paradox is the key. Nicole Garcia's tempting beyond all limits turns out to be destruction (poor telephone!), Piccoli's apparent impotence turns out to be masterminding some hideous plan, Bohringer's menacing ways lead to redemption. The more Malavoy gets into the mess, the more lustfully he ventures on getting even deeper into it. Malavoy's father hands the little time-bomb to his son as if it was his old watch or camera, wishing him luck and grinning as if it's been just another visit of a beloved child. And things become boring once they're solved and all the hoods dead. What's left is a country community on an old farm. Who wouldn't yearn to be back in the beautiful and elegant bourgeois world Malavoy and his pupil have just left, the corruption and conspiracy it conceals below an innocent surface not being an odd, but the matter you actually want.

writers_reign This is one for the 'style-over-content' buffs which is not, of course, in itself a bad thing. Stylish it definitely is; in spades yet, but content. It's one of those entries where even as you are admiring the style you find yourself asking pertinent questions (Warning: Spoilers Ahead). How has the guitar tutor come to the attention of the family, so much so that the father will consider no one else to teach his - as it turns out - precocious daughter? Would the tutor really leave a tuning-fork behind at his initial interview, indeed, would he even have 1) taken it at all and 2) removed it from his pocket if he had? Given that he DID leave it behind without realising, would the wife insist on returning it to him immediately and then seduce him? Would an apparently single woman living alone move into a large, expensive, family-sized home, effect a limp merely because she had a cane with her, invite a stranger into her new home and over light refreshments engage him in a discussion on the relative pros and cons of blonde versus brunette pubic hair? Would this same eccentric neighbor begin immediately to videotape the sex sessions the tutor enjoyed with the mother of his pupil and then send the tapes to the participants for no recognisable (i.e. blackmail) motive? Would a hit-man be passing at the precise moment the tutor is attacked and, having saved the tutor would the hit-man go on to befriend him and ultimately confide that his next 'target' is the father of his pupil? If you answered 'yes' to any or all of these questions do you always park your brain at the popcorn stand on the way to the auditorium? The trick with a movie of this kind is that, Yes, you DO ask yourself these questions even as the improbable sequence of events unfolds before your eyes but you choose to IGNORE them and surrender to the Style and/or performances. With heavy hitters like these you won't go far wrong and the film remains ultimately a triumph of style over content. 8/10

Vmax Although the film has some very beautiful & erotically tense scenes, the little & few dialogues, combined with moody glares, make even some of the completely silent scenes very threatening. It's a little like listening to the rumbling of a live volcano, not being able to run and wondering if, and when it will erupt.

Stefan Kahrs Péril en la demeure is a rather unusual little thriller, in which musician David Aurphet starts an affair with the mother of his pupil. Her husband finds out and David's life has some nightmarish turns. I have to admit that my description makes it sound rather conventional but it certainly is not.It is debatable how well this film works as a thriller, but there is no doubt that the love scenes between Nicole Garcia and Christophe Malavoy are absolutely stunning. They ooze sensuality and are almost like a ballet, both people moving sensitively, slowly, and silently, suggesting, responding to the other, teasing and hesitating, touching and retreating. These few little scenes belong to the most erotic moments ever to be put on celluloid.