(WARNING - CONTAINS SPOILER) Somewhat reminiscent of Sirk in the way that the florid setting seems expressive of the characters' psychologically perilous state - the movie can accommodate anything from the lyricism of the father's interlude with his lover to the jagged unease of the Leda murder scene, with the murderer falling apart before our eyes as all his Oedipal confusion floods out (including the handy motif of the mirror he smashes into pieces at the height of his pained monologue). The movie regularly doubles back on itself and shifts around its temporal pieces, a lumpy but largely workable metaphor for the tortured family structure. But the opening scene of Lafont leaning out the window in her bikini taunting the workmen is as overplayed as a drunken peep show, and I think that from there on the movie consistently attacks individual scenes too zealously, to the detriment of the whole. The last line of dialogue emphasizes Leda s rootlessness and lack of family: which as a chosen end-note too clumsily points up the dysfunction and mixed blessing of the group we've been watching. It's an entertaining movie though, bursting at the scenes with grace notes and thematic vigour, but too wild and impulsive for maximum impact.