Critical Reception

The movie is filled with so many small character touches, so many perfectly observed intimacies, so many visual inventions—from the sly to the grand—that the thriller plot is just a bonus. In a way, it doesn’t really matter what this movie is about; Pauline Kael has compared Beineix to Orson Welles and, as Welles so often did, he has made a movie that is a feast to look at, regardless of its subject. […] Here is a director taking audacious chances, doing wild and unpredictable things with his camera and actors, just to celebrate moviemaking. (Roger Ebert)

Awards

César Awards: Best Debut (Beineix), Music, Cinematography and Sound

Conclusion

Jean-Jacques Beineix’s wonderfully stylish thriller was largely responsible for the renaissance of foreign language film in the UK in the early 80s and remains impressive viewing today.” – David Wood, BBC