Paltoquet

Perhaps the most imaginative and enigmatic of Cesar-winner Michele Deville's (PERIL, LE YOYAGE EN DOUCE) stylish films PALTOQUET is a suspenseful thriller about power and revenge, yet it is full of crackling humor. The setting is at dusk in a port city's sinister cafe. Every day it rains at five o'clock, and in the moody atmosphere the barkeeps (Jeanne Moreau and Michel Piccoli await their regular clients — a journalist, a doctor, a merchant, and a professor — who play cards together in the bar. A mysterious woman in white (Fanny Ardant) seductively swings in a hammock suspended from pillars. A murder has been committed, and a police inspector seeks the culprit among them as more murder attempts and “accidents” occur. A surprise ending adds to the fun, as does an all-star cast at their best.