Nénette et Boni

Boni (Colin) is a pizza cook who harbours obscene, even sociopathic fantasies about the local baker's wife; Nénette (Houri) is his younger sister who runs away from boarding school and asks the embarrassed, reluctant Boni to give her shelter. This fragmented, often overly enigmatic film is a study of the two siblings' mostly aggressive relationships with each other, their friends and their estranged father. There are odd, rather contrived fantasy scenes here which sit uneasily with the generally downbeat naturalism of the rest of the film; and since the script seems determined to tease rather than inform, it's a little hard in the end to fathom exactly what director and co-writer Denis is really getting at. The performances, however, are good, and the music appealing.