You can accuse darling of the French New Wave Jacques Rivette of many things, but pithy, economic film-making isn't one of them.

With his movies regularly weighing in at more than four hours, it's no surprise he's never had cinemagoers queuing around the block.

Here he applies his - to put a positive spin on it - measured technique to a supernatural thriller - an example of exactly the sort of film that works better short and sharp.

Cat-loving clock mender Julien (Radziwilowicz) is deeply in love with the mysterious Marie (Beart), a spacey brunette with an otherworldly air.

They inhabit an increasingly passionate personal universe with Julien's only distraction a rather poorly executed attempted blackmail of Madame X (Brochet).

He's twigged that she's passing off fake antique clothing as the real thing and is demanding payment if he's not running to les flics.

This is akin to watching the minute hand of a clock to see if it's ticking round - you could easily be forgiven for thinking the action is stock still.

Bearing in mind Julien's job, you'd think he could he could have speeded things up but we just get extended scenes of domestic chores (do we really need to see him sweeping up for what seems an eternity?).

It all gets a little bit The Sixth Sense with none of the suspense and the only shock being that you're still awake and watching.

Just pray they don't bring out a director's cut.

Tim Evans.