"Hécate," says director Daniel Schmid, "is a film about projection, possession, jealousy, and logical destruction." Queen of the underworld and a goddess of black magic, Hécate, according to Greek legend, has the power to draw men to the brink of Hell. Based on a novel by Paul Morand, who in turn based the character on his wife Hélène, Schmid’s film is set amid the European community in an unspecified North African country, a colony on the verge of nationalism. A French diplomat (Giraudeau) forms a liaison with a mysterious beauty (Hutton) and soon finds that she has gotten into his blood. Schmid’s favorite axiom, that love is a projection, has never had such a thorough airing.