Like the enigmatic, unexpected behavior of its characters, the nonchalant unfolding of Loulou nearly cloaks its dense understory of class difference, deep insecurities and irreconcilable wounds. Arlette Langmann—who also makes an appearance in the film—based the script on the affair she had that ended her relationship with Pialat. Isabelle Huppert plays her counterpart, Nelly, who suddenly leaves her bourgeois husband and life for Depardieu’s hulking Loulou, an independent rogue and occasional thief who skirts the edges of civility and responsibility. Their very physical, headlong romance reveals a convincing bond mixed with confusion and distrust as Nelly adjusts to the darker vagaries of Loulou’s life. In the midst of intentionally overlapping conversations, inaudible dialogue and disjunctive cutting, Pialat’s camera keeps rolling when Depardieu accidentally breaks the bed frame, as well as when an older woman walks onto the set to scold Loulou and André for fighting—she is not an actor and did not realize it was a film. In Pialat’s ambiguous spaces of voluntary and involuntary naturalism, his audience and collaborators frequently find themselves in that position as well.