Passage à l'acte (1996)
Directed by Francis Girod

Film Review

Francis Girod directed this unusually cerebral thriller, a creepily dark film which explores the shortcomings and potential dangers of psychoanalysis.   There's a splendidly introspective performance from Daniel Auteuil, but the film really belongs to his lesser known co-star, Patrick Timsit, who is appropriately chilling as the central villain of the piece.  Whilst the film manages to hold the spectator's interest, the complexity of the narrative is a bit of a turn off, as is the fact that the plot becomes increasingly implausible as things progress.  The film may have worked better as a black comedy, along the lines of Grirod's better known work Le Trio infernal (1974).  As a straight thriller, Passage à l'acte is not a bad example of its genre, but the direction feels heavy-handed in places and, on reflection, the story is more than a little contrived.

Film Synopsis

Antoine Rivière has made a name for himself, both as an author of several noteworthy books and as a reputable psychoanalyst.  Money always seems to be lacking, so he ends up having to take on more patients than he perhaps ought.  Edouard Berg is one patient of his that a more discriminating man of his profession would have sent away after the first consultation.  Berg's admission that he has murdered his wife Laura intrigues Antoine more than it shocks him, but he cannot be sure whether the man is lying, deluded or telling the truth.  When his mentor, Meyer, then dies in a car accident he becomes very suspicious.

Antoine's concerns are confirmed when, through a former colleague of Meyer, he learns of a worrying connection between Berg and Meyer.  It seems that, some years ago, Meyer had as one of his patients a wealthy heiress, Isabelle d'Archambault, who was in a turbulent relationship with a man named Henri Fontaine.  It would seem that Fontaine and Berg are one in the same man.  Meyer's monstrous ill-treatment of Fontaine would seem to be justification enough for the latter to embark on a campaign of revenge against him and his associates.  If this is so, then Antoine is likely to be the killer's next victim...