good back-story, and good acting

It’s an especially fun movie from a director and cast who are clearly having a good time allowing themselves to let loose.

At first rather annoying in its heavy emphasis on reenactments, this movie ultimately proves fascinating, simply because the complicated, highly dramatic tale it tells still almost defies belief.

After playing with our expectations, this turns out to be a very different sort of film.

Reading about French Thriller's from the 70's a few years ago,one of the first to catch my eye was a title described as being similar to the Giallo sub-genre,which I sadly could not find anywhere. Taking a look at recent listings of a DVD seller,I was surprised to see the original version (with Eng Subs) appear,which led to me catching my breath.View on the film:Pouring the Film Noir excellence of his 1962 title Le septième juré over Giallo ice, writer/director Georges Lautner reunites with juré cinematographer Maurice Fellous to effortlessly swig across genres,with Lautner crystallising their Thriller with the Giallo stylisation of rapid fire zooms,shining razorblades and pristine whites casting an icy atmosphere. Ending the mystery with a gunshot of Noir tragedy, Lautner dices the mystery with suspenseful first-person tracking shots which circle around each suspect. Currently the lone French adaptation of a Richard Matheson book, the screenplay by Lautner drills seeds of doubt over the identity of the killer by gripping ambiguity over the reserved feelings of Femme Fatale Peggy Lister,and the wrestling for her attention between Marc Rilson and François Rollin.Giving him and his then-girlfriend the lead roles as producer, Alain Delon and sexy Mireille Darc give very good performance as Rilson and Lister,with Darc walking Lister round in a dream-like state, and Delon giving Rilson a brittle compassion over finding that someone is bleeding.

I came on this DVD in the bargain-department of a DVD-shop. For its price of 4 euros, I decided I could not go wrong in purchasing it. The design of its sleeve attracted me, as well as the names of Mireille Darc, Alain Delon and Claude Brasseur. Names that guaranteed a minimum-level of quality in the French cinema during the second half of the last century.And yes, while watching it turned out that I guessed right. 'Les seins de glace' (= French for 'the breasts of ice') is a very Seventies French thriller. Outdated now, but its charm & tense clearly haven't got lost. And yes again, I also know better thrillers than this one, but that does not qualify 'Les seins de glace' as bad.Styling and picturing are up to the standards of 1974. The plot of 'Les Seins de Glace' may not be complete but makes sense, and the film is carried on well by Brasseur, Darc and Delon. They make you a pleasant watch.

It is to my knowledge the only novel by the great Richard Matheson to have been transferred to the screen by a French director.Georges Lautner,who made Mireille Darc a star in the sixties was responsible for ponderous comedies.From time to time,he would come up with an intriguing offbeat work.So were the highly superior "le septieme juré", "La route de Salina" (Rita Hayworth's fans should have a look) and "la maison assassinée"."Les seins de glace" (Matheson's "someone is bleeding ") has a good title:it's a wordplay: in French ,"saint" (saint) and seins (breast) are homonyms ."Les saints de glace" is a short period (11th ,12th and 13th of May) when the weather is reportedly cold.And the heroine's breasts are icy cause she cannot stand men anymore.Unfortunately ,I do not think that this movie is on a par with the three movies I mention above:first of all,Mireille Darc is a limited actress and her acting is not effective in a part which demands intensity,mystery and ambiguousness.Think of Catherine Deneuve in Roman Polanski's "repulsion" and you will know what I mean.But that's not the only flaw.First intriguing and even absorbing in its first half hour ,the movie becomes repetitive and drags on.You will guess the final twist long before the end.Delon appears only after 20 minutes.He and Darc were in love at the time and that explains why the final scene has a certain strength ,not unlike what the French call "amour fou"

I was shocked to see what a low opinion users of IMDb had of this film. It has the lowest vote score I've come across! But I suppose it depends of your taste in thrillers. This is a P.D.James-type psychological thriller, where despite an overall air of menace it's hard to guess who the villains are - until the end, of course. For example, there are various tough, silent 'gorillas': are they hoodlums and hitmen (Boo! Hiss!), or are they devoted, loyal bodyguards (Hurray!)? Even when it's apparent who's been murdering folk, the puzzle of how everyone else fits into the picture remains. Claude Brasseur plays, with cheeky charm, a TV script-writer, who falls for a mysterious and beautiful blond (Mireille Darc) he finds walking on the winter beach. He is the only character free of suspicion in what follows - which I can't discuss without giving away the story. It reminded me of "After Pilkington", Simon Gray's powerful psycho-thriller, in which Bob Peck found himself similarly tied up with a mysterious (and beautiful) Miranda Richardson. In fact, both films end in the same way (as does "Of Mice and Men"); perhaps it is this ending that is not to the taste of those who gave it only one vote. If so, what would they have made of the end of "Of Mice and Men"? Give it a try, anyway; it kept me involved throughout. Not the greatest thriller, but worth more than the vote here suggests.