The best thing about this French New Wave throwback certainly isn't the narrative-impaired non-story, in which an aging criminal in debt (Michel Piccoli) enlists the young son of a dead colleague for a daring robbery of a pharmaceutical company. The combination of familiar pulp fiction outline with stylishly indulgent camera technique recalls the early work of Truffaut and Godard, and in true nouvelle-vague tradition writer director Leos Carax eventually dismisses his plot altogether to concentrate, at length and to little purpose, on the visual mood of his film. Along the way a bittersweet romance is (almost) allowed to develop between Piccoli's young mistress (Juliete Binoche) and hired thief Denis Lavant, whose angular punk features and physique (he was trained as an acrobat and mime) provide a fascinating contrast to his co-star's cool, reflective calm. The attention Carax lavishes on Binoche, who isn't required to do much more than simply look demure, may seem to border on infatuation, but some latitude should be allowed for the relative youth of the 26 year old auteur.
