This remarkable film traces with an almost clinical precision the last two days of a terminally desperate man. He is a former Parisian dandy, estranged from his wife due to his drinking problem and who, after having just managed to clear himself up in a clinic, finds no reason in going back to society to continue his life. His decision is already taken, but he gives himself a last chance of trying to establish a meaningful connection with the surrounding bourgeois environment by meeting his old friends and former lovers. Is it a last cry for help or a final farewell to a way of life which he finds phony, hollow and meaningless?
This esoteric and highly personal journey is masterly handed by the versatile Louis Malle, who perhaps has created his masterpiece. Framing, editing and most of all acting are calibrated to perfection in order to convey a holistic sense of existential despair, the portrait of a man who feels that he has spent his life waiting for something that hasn't appeared and is not worth any longer the wait.
This esoteric and highly personal journey is masterly handed by the versatile Louis Malle, who perhaps has created his masterpiece. Framing, editing and most of all acting are calibrated to perfection in order to convey a holistic sense of existential despair, the portrait of a man who feels that he has spent his life waiting for something that hasn't appeared and is not worth any longer the wait.