The Suspects

Just have a look at the way the Italian Immigrante is treated ,and compare it to the VIP's offspring,complete with help from the government and lawyer! The poor man is not even granted a "vous" ,the French polite phrase.This is the only thing that rings true in what finally is a mediocre sprawling movie the only other asset of which is the beauty of Mimsy Farmer (Michel Bouquet is completely wasted). 　　This "political " thriller is full of clichés : the foreign girl who sleeps with the first to come -the French ones would not do such a thing-,the post-68 bourgeois kid rebelling against (not for long) his father's way of life,the greybeard who still thinks he is a lady killer (Paul-"les Diaboliques" -Meurisse),the pop singer -who of course is a junkie although Jean-Claude Dauphin strangely resembles Gerard Lenormand ,a harmless neat artist of the French seventies ...The beginning of the movie was interesting and might have suggested a (very) lite "Citizen Kane" with the use of a diary the victim used to write on her trip in old France.The luminous landscapes of Provence -too bad they did not use the lovely village "les Baux de Provence" -are nicely filmed.But the story gets bogged down in usual and unusual suspects interminable questionings,and at the end of the movie,the viewer does not care anymore about the whodunit.Which does not seem to matter anymore anyway.