Catherine Deneuve and Daniel Auteuil lead a first-rate cast in this bleak but stunning contemporary drama from French writer/director Andre Techine. Police officer Alex (Daniel Auteuil) is attracted to Juliette, whose gangster brother Jimmy (Benoit Magimel) works for Alex's brother Ivan (Didier Bezace), a nightclub owner who runs a car smuggling ring. But Juliette is also in a relationship with an older woman, Marie (Catherine Deneuve), a philosophy lecturer. The pivotal action is a heist that goes wrong, but the film-maker is really more interested in the complex human triangle intertwined with the thriller elements. You'll have to concentrate hard on the tortuous, partly flashback, plot, but you will be richly rewarded: the acting is uniformly excellent, including a super performance by Julien Riviere as Justin, Ivan's son. A bonus is Techine's masterly handling of the Lyon locations.


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