A man has broken with his lover, even though she's a rich and beautiful woman - perhaps because he has grown tired of her, perhaps because he has discovered that she has all the emotional stability of Caligula on LSD. His new lover is even younger - and she's pregnant with their first child. The discarded woman takes this very badly and attacks her rival. Having survived a savage beating, the current lover flees in her car, determined to put as many miles as possible between herself and the madwoman...
In real life, this would have been the point where any reasonable person would have driven to the nearest police station, in order to say : "I was savagely attacked by a woman who tried to harm me AND my unborn child. I want to lodge a complaint. I also want to you to know that my attacker looked and behaved like a complete lunatic, she might very well represent a danger to the community at large."
In the movie the victim does nothing of the sort. She does not contact the police, not even hours later, after she has been able to recover from the first shock. Granted, alerting the police would have paved the way to serious personal and professional embarrassment, but what's embarrassment compared to preservation of life and limb ? Personally I rate this development (or rather, non-development) as a plot hole of the first magnitude, but opinions may differ.
Still, once the viewer has jumped this major hurdle, there is much to enjoy. The elaborate plot is quite original and the ending is both hyper-violent and hugely ironical. I've never been too fond of Yves Montand (don't ask me why, it's a personal taste) but here he is quite good as the manager of a trucking company whose love life lands him in some very hot water indeed.
Mind you, I get the impression that this is a very male movie, in the sense that it represents a very male kind of wish fullfillment fantasy, to wit an older, not particularly handsome man who attracts not one but two superb young women. And then these women fight over him, because he's such a studly stud...
In real life, this would have been the point where any reasonable person would have driven to the nearest police station, in order to say : "I was savagely attacked by a woman who tried to harm me AND my unborn child. I want to lodge a complaint. I also want to you to know that my attacker looked and behaved like a complete lunatic, she might very well represent a danger to the community at large."
In the movie the victim does nothing of the sort. She does not contact the police, not even hours later, after she has been able to recover from the first shock. Granted, alerting the police would have paved the way to serious personal and professional embarrassment, but what's embarrassment compared to preservation of life and limb ? Personally I rate this development (or rather, non-development) as a plot hole of the first magnitude, but opinions may differ.
Still, once the viewer has jumped this major hurdle, there is much to enjoy. The elaborate plot is quite original and the ending is both hyper-violent and hugely ironical. I've never been too fond of Yves Montand (don't ask me why, it's a personal taste) but here he is quite good as the manager of a trucking company whose love life lands him in some very hot water indeed.
Mind you, I get the impression that this is a very male movie, in the sense that it represents a very male kind of wish fullfillment fantasy, to wit an older, not particularly handsome man who attracts not one but two superb young women. And then these women fight over him, because he's such a studly stud...