Based on his own autobiographical novel, Pialat paints an unflattering portrait of himself in Jean Yanne’s insecure, abusive, overbearing lover who maintains a platonic partnership with his wife while carrying on a torturous affair with a younger woman. Boiling the relationship down to its splintered skeleton, Pialat presents the couple within transitory, confined spaces such as the car, the hotel, the doorstep—perpetually on the verge of departure. Falling into a painful rhythm, their repetition of the act of breaking up almost imperceptibly switches the seat of power in the relationship and eventually erodes the fragile union. Always breaking up also means they are always reuniting—as if constantly attempting to recreate the moment when they were first in love—and exposing the near-primal, simultaneous push and pull toward and away from one another. Despite the dissonance of Pialat’s waves, his couple’s water treading resonated deeply with modern audiences who flocked to what would be the director’s greatest popular success.