Qui ?

Leonard Keigel made a few movies, and everyone must be grateful about this. The movie QUI ? Is probably his best, so we can't say that he had many things to give. Nevertheless he was co-founder of Cahiers de Cinema, so he managed to sit on director's seat a few times and have some fun. He was only having fun, nothing else.

It is rather difficult to judge this movie. There is nothing to be judged. The plot is trivial, the actors just say their words, the director doesn't do anything. His target is to create a film in the style of Chabrol and Clouzot, but he only manages to create a very-very long commercial.

Don't watch this movie. It's terrible !

I suppose that previous year LA PISCINE more or less inspired this topic. Not the same story, nor atmosphere, but however a very interesting analyze of characters between whom the relationship is more than ambiguous, that's the least we can say. It is complex, hard to follow in the last part - not the first-, but I guess it was written in that purpose. Flawless cast, good directing, typical of this period. I would say it is an intellectual thriller. It is riveting though, never boring, not too long, so you can try to watch it. If you liked LA PISCINE with the same leads, but without Delon, you should like this one, maybe not as much as Jacques Deray's film. Excellent ending twists, as in ALFRED HITCHCOCK PRESENTS eighties series.... Not the fifties and sixties one. Also a perfume of PLEIN SOLEIL atmosphere in this feature.

Frankly I doubt Schneider herself said that this movie "set the tone for her future roles".If such was the case,what a poor taste she used to have.Actually,it was rather "la piscine" made the year before,that boosted her career that was on the wane after the Sissi saga (forever my love).

Romy Schneider teamed up again with Maurice Ronet (who was in "la piscine" too),but this time with laughable results.Leonard Keigel,the director ,wrote a screenplay in which the paucity of the ideas is so glaring that only a member of the audience who has never seen a Hitch ,Chabrol ou Clouzot movie could enjoy this poor would - be suspense thriller.Keigel hired Chabrol's dialogue writer,Paul Guégauff:probably horrified by the emptiness of the story,he made up for it with a lot of swear-words.

I wonder why talented actors like Ronet and Schneider agreed to make such a bomb;besides,the supporting actors do not "support" at all:Keigel's wife ,Simone Bach and Gabriele Tinti,sink into utterly ridiculous ham. The songs ,in English ("who are you" ) sung by a Dutch band ,Wallace Collection ,would nicely fit in a commercial for Martini.The critical reception was so disagreeable in France at the time ("a film made of brics,bracs and thingummies") that Keigel was not to made another movie before 1977.And it was his last one.

French director Leonard Keigel tries the giallo in this Italian coproduction bearing the evocative title The Corpse with the claws of steel, staring a swell couple of French and Italian actors. Marina (Romy Schneider, La Piscine), an Austrian young woman, has a violent quarrel with her boyfriend Claude (Gabriele Tinti, La Morte risale a ieri sera) during their holidays in Brittany. Claude driving their Alfa Romeo throws it down from a cliff and she has just the time to jump out, while Claude's body disappears into the sea.

A shocked Marina is looked after in Paris by Claude's distant brother Serge (Maurice Ronet, La Femme écarlate), who is divorced from Dorothée (Simone Bach, La Dame de pique, from the same), and they are not long to fall in love together. But may in fact Marina have killed Claude? Is she actually totally sound of mind? And is Claude after all really dead? As the usual police does nothing serious to clear the mystery, Serge leads his inquiry to lighten the darkness of the case and chase all the nightmares. Should Marina, rather mysterious and unsettling, be one of these wicked and disturbed giallo heroins, like in Senza sapere niente di lei? Shall Serge be the victim of a dangerous mantis like in Col cuore in gola?

If Keigel properly knows the codes of the genre (the plane landing, the spiral staircase, the mannequins, the bloody knife, the pursuit on the rooftop...), and sets them correctly, mixed with some Nouvelle Vague features, in a rather interesting and somehow visionary way, he lacks however of the adequate skill to put right the different elements together and build a cohesive story until its end. The admirers of the actors will nevertheless be able to appreciate the film. (Viewed in French 1h18 version.)

One of Ms. Schneider's early works where she was trying to shake off the 'Sissi'-Image. Here we can see her (great as usual) as the somewhat troubled girlfriend of a man probably killed in a car crash as she tries to support his brother finding out what really happened. But strange things begin to happen and she feels like being hunted by a ghost.

The really good cast down to the supporting roles combined with the great and very suspenseful direction, a really good 60s score and the original and atmospheric script make a French thriller (actually, it's a French-Italian co-production) more interesting than lot of its counterparts from Hollywood. OK, the script tries sometimes a little bit too heavy to create a sense of overwhelming doom or anxiety surrounding Ms. Schneider's character (in her presence and in the things happening to her), on the other hand that low-key suspense is what makes the movie so effective. The main part seems to be just written for Ms. Schneider as she as usual does such a splendid job.

Any admirer of Ms. Schneider's talent shouldn't miss this movie. And any admirer of good (60s/70s) thrillers shouldn't miss this rare movie, either! I think it should really get a release on DVD. The score by none other than Claude Bolling would along with the songs be also great to have on CD.