Crime d'amour

Alain Corneau wrote (with Nathalie Carter) and directed this little French thriller about the extremes to which people will go to maintain their goals - and the spatter of mess they leave behind on everyone who comes into contact with them. Despite a fine cast of actors this story is one in which the audience simply doesn't care about anyone involved. Bad things happen to bad people, and that concept is taken to extremes.

Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a wealthy corporate executive in Paris who makes international deals through her brainy cunning. Her protégé is the equally bright but less world-wise Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier). At times it appears that Christine wants to be in a relationship with Isabelle but at the same time Christine has a lover Philippe (Patrick Mille) who works for her and who incidentally is also sleeping with Isabelle. Games are played; Christine takes credit for Isabelle's ideas in a manipulative way to gain a position in the US. Two tigers cannot in the same environment survive and Isabelle carefully plots the murder of Christine: we see Isabelle stabbing Christine to death. After the murder Isabelle, in an apparent drugged state, confesses to the murder and is sent to jail. But the story is far from over as Isabelle's brilliant and now criminal mind knows how to manipulate this predicament as well as Christine would have had the tables been turned.

Despite the fact that both Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier are both extraordinarily beautiful women and superb actors, neither is a character with whom we can empathize much less care. Yes the plot is a brilliant Hitchcock type story and the film, though it drags in many places, is very well made. But in the end we are left in an emotional vacuum. Where is the love of the title?

Grady Harp

In Love Crime, the French have taken Mike Nichols' Working Girl and turned it into a true thriller, not just a sociological study of corporate ambition and intrigue. Isabelle (Ludivine Sagnier) is the young executive in a large global corporation; Christine (Kristin Scott Thomas) is her boss and mentor. All's well while they love each other; not so when Christine usurps Isa's ideas without attribution in the name of collaboration.

That first half, where the two execs jockey for success and independence, emphasizes shady but not lethal methods. When an unexpected plot twist changes the film into a more traditional thriller, the film is nonetheless fascinating as the protagonist makes her way through a maze created by herself and seemingly deadly for her career and her personal life.

The late director, Alain Corneau, crafts the intrigue so as to allow his actors the widest scope for their talent, especially Sagnier, who goes from introverted neophyte to deadly colleague learning from her mentor the tricks necessary to break through the glass ceiling. Not so successful is Corneau with the police, who can't seem to get it right even the second time around.

Typically French is the emphasis on Isabelle to be loved and Christine to be admired. The larceny that ensues can be traced to these driving emotions, and only the French can deconstruct them both and still produce an engrossing suspense.

I enjoyed this movie very much, as I usually enjoy French movies, whether they are comedies or dramas. The look of this film is impeccable, all interiors are exquisitely designed and of top quality as is the photography and the lighting, as perfect as they can get nowadays. The acting is superb and the pacing flawless. I just found among the dubious happenings, a most obvious flaw: Anyone will see immediately that a piece of cloth that was cut quite sharply with an Exacto knife, will get a sharp edge, a look totally different from a piece of the same fabric torn by accident, like getting the fabric caught on a nail or any sharp corner, accident that will practically destroy the edge of that fabric, leaving it completely unraveled. To me that is the most flagrant mistake in the whole script. Otherwise an excellent movie, quite absorbing and entertaining.

Apart from saying that this movie is about competition between two ambitious female executives, I don't plan to get into the plot. The strength of the movie lies in the performances of the principals, Kristin Scott Thomas as the ruthless senior executive, and Ludivine Sagnier as her imaginative young assistant. Ms. Scott Thomas, English born but a long-time resident of France, seems to appear in an unending stream of British, French and American movies. This an unusual role for her but she is an accomplished actress and carries it off with her usual skill. The younger Ms. Sagnier is also splendid in an equally demanding part. Eventually, "Love Crime" becomes an intricately plotted murder mystery which, at least for me, is unconvincing. But I enjoyed the ride.

In Paris, Christine Rivière (Kristin Scott Thomas) is a tough executive of a French corporation. Her assistant Isabelle Guérin (Ludivine Sagnier) is an intelligent and cunning young woman needy of love and affection. When Isabelle is assigned to travel to Cairo with the lawyer Philippe Deschamps (Patrick Mille) to show her project, her idea is successful and Isabelle and Philippe have one night stand. Back in France, the senior management in the headquarter in Washington congratulates Christine for the project and she does not give the credit to Isabelle. Soon she notes that the manipulative Christine is using her to climb in the corporation. When her secretary Daniel (Guillaume Marquet) shows another project from Washington, Isabelle proposes improvements but does not show them to Christine. They have a meeting with the American executives and Isabelle is congratulated by them. Christine begins a war and humiliates Isabelle first using Philippe that has embezzled a large amount and is in her hands and then in a party. Isabelle plots a scheme and kills Christine at home. However the calculating Isabelle leaves many evidences in the crime scene incriminating herself and does not have an alibi.

"Crime d'amour" is another great French thriller with a good story of ambition, ingratitude and revenge. The two lead actresses, Kristin Scott Thomas and Ludivine Sagnier, are wonderful and their duel is engaging. The theme, competition in a corporation, is a reality and the viewer will certainly identify characters with real real coworkers or ex-coworkers. The conclusion shows how dangerous is the secretary Daniel. My vote is seven.

Title (Brazil): "Crime de Amor" ("Love Crime")