Fils de Deux Mères ou Comédie de l'Innocence

After his inspired Time Regained, Ruiz returns with this brittle, rather drab-looking Buñuelian 'comedy' (from a novel by Massimo Bontempelli) about a nine-year-old boy, Camille (Hugon), who announces to his bewildered mother (Huppert) that his name is Paul and he'd like to go home, now, please. He takes her to an apartment on the other side of Paris, claims to recognise 'his' room, and what's more, the woman who lives there (Balibar) seems to recognise him as the child she lost two years before. Ruiz presents this surreal conceit with matter-of-fact dispassion (and suspense chords on the soundtrack), even as the boy's family go to pieces.