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Jean -Daniel Simon (who died this very month) made his first movie when he was 24 ,then the youngest director in France ;this first effort "la fille d'en face" (based on a screenplay written by Roman Polanski) was a romantic affair and a rather accessible film ,even though he commercially flopped .His sophomore effort , "Adelaide " seemed to indicate that the young director was going in a good direction.

It did not seem that way in "Ils " an overambitious attempt at exposing the "cutural Malthusianism of the bourgeoisie "in which Simon set his standards too high :even considered an experimental work ,and featuring talented actors such as Michel Duchaussoy, Alexandra Stewart and Charles Vanel , this film is uncompromisingly highbrow stuff , sometimes heady (the dreamlike sequences) often a headache .A screenplay very hard to decipher ,blending thriller ( the hero's father's dead :suicide or crime) ,sci-fi ( a scientist who uses him as a guinea-pig for his dream machine ) ,and social exposure (mercantilism and critics' triviality in the world of art).

I 'm not able to assign it a rating , for this art is beyond me.