Encontros Cruzados

It looks like an American film noir from the forties with Mireille Darc instead of Lizabeth Scott or Jane Greer and Claude Brasseur instead of Arthur Kennedy or Dick Powell. It remains French in the making, action, editing, atmosphere but remains effective, and above all dark. Brasseur is rather good in the lead male character. The director George Lautner was a great comedies specialist, but when he tried something different, he succeeded as well: LES SEINS DE GLACE, LE PACHA, LE PROFESSIONEL.... The trademark of a good film maker for me. The biggest surprise here is of course the ending that only a few could predict.

Gross dude relentlessly pursues a woman who is not interested and then ends up in the friend zone and then...come on! Gross dubbing, bad acting, terrible non-plot-no idea how anyone could rate this above a 2, tops. Creepy, icky, gross cringe nearly the whole time. If you get the chance to watch this, pass. HARD.

So many other better flicks from this era to watch instead.

I came on this DVD in the bargain-department of a DVD-shop. For its price of 4 euros, I decided I could not go wrong in purchasing it. The design of its sleeve attracted me, as well as the names of Mireille Darc, Alain Delon and Claude Brasseur. Names that guaranteed a minimum-level of quality in the French cinema during the second half of the last century.

And yes, while watching it turned out that I guessed right. 'Les seins de glace' (= French for 'the breasts of ice') is a very Seventies French thriller. Outdated now, but its charm & tense clearly haven't got lost. And yes again, I also know better thrillers than this one, but that does not qualify 'Les seins de glace' as bad.

Styling and picturing are up to the standards of 1974. The plot of 'Les Seins de Glace' may not be complete but makes sense, and the film is carried on well by Brasseur, Darc and Delon. They make you a pleasant watch.

My copy of this film has the uninspired title, Someone is Bleeding, which didn't seem very appropriate, and then I realised that the French title translates as Breasts of Ice, which just about makes sense. unhappy with either title I discover that the original novel by Richard Matheson was entitled, Someone is Bleeding. This is long out of print and almost impossible to obtain so I am unable to discover whether this is a faithful adaptation but have no reason to doubt it and am left pondering that maybe this was one of the great writers lesser works. Because the thing is, this is one of those films the Italians loved to make around the same time. Someone is going mad or are they and is someone trying to drive them mad or trying to help them? Can be good and with the giallo type film there would always be plenty of action to keep you occupied as you struggle to sort things out. Here the main protagonists are fine and Delon remains sufficiently poker faced throughout to just about keep us guessing but there just isn't enough to prevent this becoming just a little annoying. Well paced, decently shot and good performances all round, just could have done with a little Italian raciness instead of the rather dour French.

It is to my knowledge the only novel by the great Richard Matheson to have been transferred to the screen by a French director.

Georges Lautner,who made Mireille Darc a star in the sixties was responsible for ponderous comedies.From time to time,he would come up with an intriguing offbeat work.So were the highly superior "le septieme juré", "La route de Salina" (Rita Hayworth's fans should have a look) and "la maison assassinée"."Les seins de glace" (Matheson's "someone is bleeding ") has a good title:it's a wordplay: in French ,"saint" (saint) and seins (breast) are homonyms ."Les saints de glace" is a short period (11th ,12th and 13th of May) when the weather is reportedly cold.And the heroine's breasts are icy cause she cannot stand men anymore.

Unfortunately ,I do not think that this movie is on a par with the three movies I mention above:first of all,Mireille Darc is a limited actress and her acting is not effective in a part which demands intensity,mystery and ambiguousness.Think of Catherine Deneuve in Roman Polanski's "repulsion" and you will know what I mean.But that's not the only flaw.First intriguing and even absorbing in its first half hour ,the movie becomes repetitive and drags on.You will guess the final twist long before the end.

Delon appears only after 20 minutes.He and Darc were in love at the time and that explains why the final scene has a certain strength ,not unlike what the French call "amour fou"