This Sweet Sickness

Miller's second film, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel about a young man (Depardieu) who secretly builds a house for his childhood sweetheart (Laffin), then busily sets about getting her to live there with him, oblivious not only to the fact that she is already married and can't stand him anyway, but to the other girl (Miou-Miou, terrific) meanwhile pursuing him with a love just as hopeless. Often a little self-conscious in its nods to Hitchcock and one rather forced echo of Cocteau, it perhaps errs in departing from Highsmith's original (to favour the psychology over the policier), but is often dazzlingly effective. Particularly striking is the dreamy, semi-subjective camera work (it's beautifully shot by Pierre Lhomme throughout) which turns the snowbound roadways leading to the house of fantasy into a mental landscape.