" Look outside the window
There's a woman being grabbed
They've dragged her to the bushes
And now she's being stabbed
Maybe we should call the cops
And try to stop the pain
But Monopoly is so much fun
I'd hate to blow the game"
PHIL OCHS - OUTSIDE OF A SMALL CIRCLE OF FRIENDS
What the folksinger depicts in his song is exactly what happens in the movie;by and large ,it is another version of "the accused" (Jonathan Kaplan ,1988)in which Oscar-winner Jodie Foster was raped before indifferent (or vicious ) eyes ,but here the witnesses claim that they've heard or seen nothing;all of them were in their apartment ,they did not intervene or even call the Police .
Given this harrowing subject,it is a pity that the movie is so dull and so mediocre ;the central character,the coward who wants to redeem himself is played by a Johnny -one-note Yvan Attal;his girlfriend is the most uninteresting character of the script,being in China when "it " happened" ,so why give such an important part to her?Only talented Nicole Garcia tries to save something from the wreckage ,sadly unsupported by the rest of the cast.
Yves Boisset or André Cayatte were often unfairly despised by the "true connoisseurs" of the French cinema;those men are /were able to give that kind of story substance ;they are sorely missed here.
