The American remake was released on screens a year ago. I did not get to watching it yet, and I'm not sure if I will soon. 'Eaux profondes', the 1981 adaptation of the novel 'Deep Water' (this is also the name of the film in its English distribution) by Patricia Highsmith is too good a film to risk changing my impression. The director is Michel Deville, the French director who left us a few weeks ago, and the lead roles are played by Jean-Louis Trintignant and Isabelle Huppert. 'Eaux profondes' is an excellent opportunity to see again Trintignant (who also disappeared last year) at the peak of his career, Huppert (who turned 70 a few days ago) while becoming a star and at her supreme physical beauty, and to appreciate Deville's professionalism and inventiveness in the decade in which he directed his best films.
The story in the American writer's novel is moved to the island of Jersey, a territory of the British crown located about 19 kilometers from the coast of France. The landscapes are, of course, spectacular, and the location is also a good opportunity for Michel Deville to shoot in British objective-realist style. Vic is a perfume maker, his wife Melanie is many years younger and the couple have a six-year-old daughter. Apparently they are a happy couple and a very liberal one in their behavior. Melanie openly flirts and dances at parties with the men she meets, under the indulgent gaze of Vic, who prefers to read, play chess with himself, and raise snails in his garage. When Melanie's adventures begin to materialize, Vic begins to react in an original way - he threatens his rivals with murdering them. From threat to deeds the road is not too long, and crime can be the best proof of love.
What we see on the screen is a real hell, if we judge the relations between the two spouses according to the accepted norms. Michel Deville films everything in an objective and detached style. The characters hide a lot of darkness and many details remain incompletely clarified. Why is Melanie acting this way? Boredom, Ana Karenina syndrome or the feeling that the relationship between the two has reached an impasse that cannot be overcome? How should we interpret the ending, which is changed from that in Patricia Highsmith's novel? The audience's feeling of discomfort is accentuated by the excellent soundtrack that combines dance music, aggressive jazz and Manuel de Falla's harpsichord concerto, but also by the presence of the little girl who witnesses many of the conflict scenes. Michel Deville has created a cool and unsettling film, one that viewers won't soon forget.
