It’s good. He plays it straight, kind of like the Melville I’ve seen. I’m not blown away or enraptured by anything in this film, as compared with Renoir, Clouzot, Godard, Bunuel. In fact, there were even a few stretches (Jean Moreau walking around in the street) where I began to lose interest. The plot has a lot of puddied holes, which I forgive, but I’m not sure everyone would. That all said, for a twenty-five year old director’s first film, it’s pretty damn okay. Bertolucci’s first film is way better. It was just the rest that all sucked. Ha. What are you gonna do?