Les Victimes (1996)
Directed by Patrick Grandperret

Film Review

Adapted from a novel of the same title by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, Les Victimes could have been a compelling intrigue but, saddled with a third rate script that is over-wordy and lacking in character depth, it struggles to render its implausible plot remotely credible.  In contrast to Hitchcock's Vertigo, a far more successful attempt to adapt a Boileau and Narcejac novel for the big screen, Patrick Grandperret's Les Victimes is a stuttering misfire that loses its way amid its artistic pretensions and consequently fails to grab the spectator's interest, in spite of some solid performances.

Vincent Lindon is eminently better suited for low-key auteur films than genre films but his engaging everyman presence lends a touch of reality that the film badly needs.  Florence Thomassin is well-cast as the enigmatic femme fatale who apparently lures Lindon into a trap, putting her co-star Karin Viard to shame with a far more convincing performance.  Jacques Dutronc exudes quite menace in a role that appears tailor made for him but which is unpardonably underwritten.  Attractively shot on location in Morocco, Les Victimes makes a brave stab at updating Boileau and Narcejac's novel but it is undermined every step of the way by Grandperret's clunky screenplay and laboured mise-en-scène. The film isn't a total write-off but, had more care gone into the script, it could have been so much better.  The 'clever' ending is totally predictable.

Film Synopsis

Pierre Duval is a publisher who is madly in love with Manou, an attractive but unpredictable young woman.  Unfortunately, she is married to a renowned architect, Bernard Jaillac, who has no intention of letting her go.  On the pretence of working with Jaillac on a book, Duval accompanies him on his next building project in Morocco in the hope of meeting up with his wife.  When Jaillac's wife does show up, she turns out to be a woman that Duval has never met before.  The unknown woman, Claire, lures Duval into an illicit affair and persuades him to help her escape from her husband by faking her death.  Duval realises too late that he has been the victim of a cruel deceit...