Based on a story from Diderot’s Jacques le fataliste, Bresson’s film is arguably one of the great curiosities of the Vichy era: updated to a contemporary setting and employing a fairly conventional narrative setup, the film is resolved in a series of surprising plot twists. A woman scorned takes revenge by befriending a former prostitute and arranging for her to marry her ex-lover. Eschewing the minimalism for which Bresson’s later works came to be known, the film is more indicative of the style of Jean Cocteau, who wrote the film’s dialogue, with bravura camera movements and stylized costumes and set design. Despite these flourishes, the film fits well into the Bressonian canon for its exploration of the darker side of human nature, particularly evident in the reserved performance of Maria Casarès as the quietly vengeful socialite who exudes a frank sexuality atypical of many of the films of the period.