Disappointed by both her provincial husband and her Parisian lover, a chic young woman (Jeanne Moreau) has a new encounter with a sensitive student.
“‘I know it when I see it,’ declared Justice Potter Stewart in dismissing the claim that Louis Malle’s depiction of female sexual pleasure constituted pornography. From the moment Moreau won a special prize at the Venice Film Festival, her steamy tryst with younger lover Jean-Marc Bory had shocked those not exhilarated by its liberating acceptance of a woman’s right to enjoy love-making. Cementing Moreau’s status as a cerebral sex symbol, this satire on bourgeois mores seems touchingly chaste six decades on. But Moreau continues to captivate as her latterday Madame Bovary drifts between Bory’s enamoured archaeologist, distracted spouse Alain Cuny and casual fling José Luis de Villallonga.” (David Parkinson)