The Marcorelle Affair

An intriguing black comedy in the late-Buñuel mould. Léaud is a former '68 activist turned successful but neurotic prosecuting attorney who finds his guilt far from assuaged when he allows desire to lead him to the bedroom of Polish waitress Jacob. But is it the lust that torments him (he's married), or the fact that in the bedroom he kills a man who may or may not be her father? Conspiracy thriller, comic fantasy, psychological study and cinephile allusions combine in a shifting, unsettling narrative that never quite delivers on its initial promise. The casting, however, is spot on, with Amalric weighing in as a young legal eagle on the lookout to make the most of Léaud's misfortune.