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A fine psychological thriller, adapted from an English mystery novel (John Wainwright's Brainwash) already accented by a Série Noire translation. The potential staginess of the material - a New Year's Eve interrogation in a provincial police station - is admirably shaken by inspired adaptation, mise en scène and editing as cop Ventura turns 'witness' Serrault (an attorney obsessed with his own mediocrity) into a suspected rapist and murderer. No descent to glib cat-and-mouse cleverness, and no recourse to actorly fireworks: Miller's confidence in dialogue and an ever more tightly twisting plot is simply a gripping joy.