Aux abois

Based on a novel by Tristan Bernard which took place in the thirties ,but that the screenwriter transferred to the fifties at a time death penalty still existed in France.

Lauded far beyond its station by "télérama style" critics , "Aux Abois" ,in spite of a painstaking reconstruction of the fifties , is a listless thriller ,an interminable wandering, recalling the worst sides of the notorious Nouvelle Vague .

A man has killed an usurer with a hammer and is on the lam all through the movie ;despite the title which means " in desperate straits ", Elie Semoun gives a johnny-one -note performance,and never ,in a month of Sundays ,one believes he is in jeopardy;Ludmilla Mickael tries her best to save the movie from wreckage ,but what can she do when she is given so weak material to work with?

This is PhIlippe Colin's last work to date .