Die geheimnisvolle Sekte

First shock : you meet some kind of private eye ,complete with trench coat and hat;surprise,for the first (and probably last) time in the story of cinema ,the traditional private of the old film noirs is a woman,and an attractive woman at that (Deneuve!)! The story is bizarre ,involving a sect,"the Church of the final Revival".Deneuve is hired by a mysterious noble,Arnaud De Maule ,to investigate his friend Chloé's disappearance."Ecoute voir" might seem Chandleresque,but it also owes a good deal to Jules Verne (the ray) and even Souvestre-Alain's Fantomas ,the latter taking us back to the prehistory of the French cinema(Louis Feuillade).In a word: odd.

In 1980, you had an American movie called MAN WITH BOGART'S FACE, here it is Bogart with Catherine Deneuve's face. I will never get tired of the seventies era. Before the awful and unbearable eighties. I loved the seventies because of their daring, boldness, inventivity, where so many films were so much unpredictable. Weird, offbeat as this movie which it is unclassifiable, and where Deneuve offers us a wonderful performance, the kind of role that could announce some kind of NIKITA and of course all the action thrillers where the leads are women. This film could be remade now, in 2025, it would be in total fashion with today standards. I am afraid that this film is not that widely known in Catherine Deneuve's career, such a shame, it would deserve to be more shown.