Based on the 1962 Charles Williams pulp novel The Long Saturday Night, this final film by Truffaut (he died of a brain tumor in October 1984) is done in the Hitchcockian style of his 1968 THE BRIDE WORE BLACK. A classy black-and-white movie about a man falsely accused of murder,
CONFIDENTIALLY YOURS is much lighter and more enjoyable than most of Truffaut's films in the Seventies.
Its absurdly complex plot involves businessman Julien Vercel (Jean-Louis Trintignant), who is charged with murder and remains holed up in his office to avoid detection. Barbara (Fanny Ardant), the secretary he has just fired for her insolent behavior, tracks down clues to prove his innocence. The
mystery of the film is not the killer's identity--this has never been a concern of Truffaut's--but the more important mystery of love. Barbara plays detective not because she cares about revealing the murderer but because she loves Julien, though neither she nor Julien will initially admit this.
In order to prove her love to him, she must survive an Orphic descent into the seedy criminal underworld of gangsters, murderers, and prostitutes.
CONFIDENTIALLY YOURS! is Truffaut's showcase for Ardant, the love of his later years and mother of his youngest child. leave a comment
