For the first half of this unusual movie about a wartime French theatre which, like the Windmill, 'never closed', director François Truffaut has a great film in the making. Alas, melodrama gets the upper hand towards the end, and the hulking Gérard Depardieu can't convince us he's the man theatre-owner Catherine Deneuve could fall for while her Jewish husband, the boss who owned the place before the Nazis took over, paces his cellar hideaway beneath the stage. Although Deneuve looks hauntingly beautiful, her love scenes with Depardieu are less persuasive than any of the performances they're giving on stage. But this fascinating if flawed film, beautifully set in period and splendidly photographed by Nestor Almendros, took almost every French Oscar that year.