LES VOLEURS
SYNOPSIS
LES VOLEURS (THIEVES)is the new erotic psychological thriller from France, which interweaves a contemporary love triangle with a family chronicle and noirish intrigue -- a dazzling saga told with brilliant panache. LES VOLEURS is structured like a Faulkner novel. Through the shifting of narrative voices, this intricately woven series of flashbacks and flash-forwards reveals each character's piece of the puzzle.
With the spectacular backdrop of early morning in the French Alps, 10-year old Justin
(JULIEN RIVIÈRE) awakens to the sounds of his mother (FABIENNE BABE) grieving over
the sudden death of his father Ivan (DIDIER BEZACE).
Ivan's brother Alex, a brooding detective long estranged from his family, is compelled
to investigate his brother's murder.
Flashbacks reveal not only the circumstances surrounding the murder of Ivan, but also
the detached, sex-driven relationship of Alex and Juliette (LAURENCE CÔTE). What
begins as a series of frequent but disaffected hotel trysts soon becomes complicated
by Alex's unease over Juliette's passionate love affair with her philosophy professor,
Marie (CATHERINE DENEUVE). Intrigued and titillated by the sexual relationship with
his rival for Juliette's affections, Alex embarks on a journey to discover who Marie
is and why she is so special to Juliette.
Juliette, feeling alone in the world except for her tough but solicitous brother,
Jimmy (BENOÎT MAGIMEL), and wanted by the law in connection with an aborted heist,
becomes increasingly depressed, acting out her anguish in repeated suicide attempts.
When Jimmy springs her from a psychiatric hospital and takes her away to Marseilles for
a new life, Alex and Marie both feel abandoned. They are drawn to one another, despite
their innate differences of character and simmering jealousy, in a bond created by
their respective feelings for Juliette.
Marie, a rational-minded and poised intellectual who has all along been puzzled by
the strength of her emotions for Juliette, struggles with an almost maternal temptation
to seek Juliette out, to rescue her, in fact, from what she fears her life will become.
Once again, Téchiné delves deep into the passions, spoken or unspoken, acknowledged
but more often disavowed, of families and of lovers. Recognizing the undercurrents
of disdain and desire that course through all human relationships -- of siblings,
of parents and children, and of lovers -- he never fails to explore subtly and precisely
the uses of aggression and the wages of repression.
Last Modified 12-December-1996
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