If, like Japan, France could nominate its artists as "national living treasures," Claude Chabrol would surely be among the first filmmakers so honored. In a career that spans almost fifty years, Chabrol has meticulously exposed the darker, seamy underside of the well-ordered world of the French middle class.

Once again adapting a novel by Ruth Rendell (whose A Judgment in Stone became La Céremonie) Chabrol tells the story of Philippe Tardieu (Benoît Magimel), an ambitious, somewhat straitlaced young man living with his mother and two sisters near the Atlantic coast. His older sister, Sophie, is getting married, and it’s at her wedding that Philippe meets Senta, one of the bridesmaids.

Their attraction is obvious, and soon they get together, but the more time he spends with her, the more he begins to wonder about her.
Their passion is real, but Senta seems given to telling fantastic tales. When one day she asks Philippe for a terrible proof of his love, Philippe must come to terms with who his lover might really be. Senta is played by Laura Smet, who was so impressive in Xavier Giannoli’s Eager Bodies (ND/NF 2004); she is also, incidentally, the daughter of Nathalie Baye and Johnny Hallyday.