Desire

Wow, other reviewers see this as pornography. Take another look. It's about connection and disconnection in French society, in which sex and discussions about sex are used as a central vehicle for showing relations between men and women in French society (or at least younger ones). Note that the director never shows anything above the waist of the nude women in the shower chattering away about sex and men. Note that all the characters are missing each other needs and hence at odds and frustrated. Note the scene in the plaza where everyone is self-absorbed. Note that the author starts the movie with a message that he still believes love is possible.

Where the movie fails most is not in its failure to do more than vaguely allude to the background situation - unemployment and a shipyard strike. Why those are even there is never clarified. Rather, it was the director's inability to bring the story to completion without implanting an implausibly happy ending that left me wondering what was the point of it all. If French social relations are pretty much the same as they were 25 years ago, then the director's gotten quite a bit right. Unfortunately, he didn't know where to go with it. That's why, in spite of the good acting (for the most part), I gave it only six stars.