Noir comme le souvenir

17 years ago, a little girl was murdered. The killer was never found. But now he returns, kills again, leaves the girl's doll or flowers with a card saying "black for the memory" to mark his next victims, and he even decapitates the stone angel on the girl's tombstone. The girl's mother, played by Jane Birkin, is understandably terrified. But what is the murderer trying to tell her?

Interesting, suspenseful thriller much in the vein of Italian giallo with its subject of a serial killer with bizarre and macabre habits, sneaking around in the dark. Much in line with that genre is the musical leitmotif, too: a girl innocently singing "la, la, la, la..." which brings back memories of the unsolved first murder case. The comparatively small production is enhanced by the strong performance of Jane Birkin ("Seven Deaths in the Cat's Eye", "Evil Under the Sun").

Generally I do not go much for Jean-Pierre Mocky stuff.Most of the time,he botches the job,steals screenplays ("le miraculé" was a George Langelaan rip-off)and why he can make as much movies as he wants still remains a mystery to me,most of them do not get even commercial success.

There are exceptions though:" l'albatros"(1971) was perhaps the first French road movie and remains watchable today."Noir comme le souvenir" is closer to Chabrol psychological detective story.There are unusual scenes:in the school,the stage invaded by girls disguised as cats ,a bad taste climax !A gallery of sinister-looking characters,and the recurrent image of a clown give the movie substance.The subject,if one takes a good look at it,is not that much original:can someone raise from the dead?Boileau-Narcejac did that forty years before,with "les diaboliques" "vertigo" and the forgotten "à coeur perdu" (which Etienne Périer filmed under the title "meurtre en 45 tours").But the suspense is sustained and Jane Birkin's presence is an asset for this work.