Review by guy gatebois

What a curious conflict ! This french film, realized by Philippe De Broca, the subtle and jovial director of "L'homme de Rio", "Les tribulations d'un Chinois en Chine", "Le diable par la queue", "Les caprices de Marie", "Le magnifique", "Tendre poulet" and "Louisiane", describes a very delicate adventure, during the Second World War, in North Africa. The wife of an ambassador is hesitating between two men - the first one clever, generous and courageous, the second one, young, sincere and sensible - and becomes the female instinct of a three-hands escape. The approach of this complex friendship is characterized by grace : that is the reason why the shadow of a windy tenderness flies on this desert of affective uncertainties.

Touching atmosphere is created too by talented comedians, Marlene Jobert (1971 was an important year for her, as the delightful comedy "Catch me a spy" and the truly inspired "Six days wonder" prove it), Michel Piccoli - originally, his part was written for Jean-Paul Belmondo - and Michael York, who display a remarkable intensity to suggest the confusion of their vulnerable feelings. Otherwise, the main theme, composed by Michel Legrand, represents the perfect musical allegory of melancholy. At last, we must celebrate epilogue, which reflects an ideal sorrow : full of tears but outwardly smiling. Follow this initiating way, which offers us the fertile ambiguity of an utopian fantasy.