Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac have been the best writers France had to offer as a contribution to the "suspense " genre.Without them,no HItchcock's "Vertigo' ,no Clouzot's "diabolique".
"Les eaux dormantes " finds the team back in familiar territory:a mysterious disappearance,the father's hero:whodunit?The mother,who did not love him anymore?The auntie,jealous of her sister?The retarded sister who seems to love her brother in a very particular way?The devoted domestic Galabru?This mysterious brunette who seems to be a long lost hero's lover?
This does not make a great movie for all that.During the second third of the story,we lose sight of the essential,with uninteresting developments (the Asian prostitute,Jacques Perrin and Daniel Gelin's characters).When finally,the director gets back to basics,we do not really care about the hero's family problems.Trying to get his spectator back,he intertwines present and black and white (and fragmented à la "hiroshima mon amour") shots from the past.But it's too little too late.
"Les eaux dormantes",on the paper ,although it's far from the two works mentioned above,was a relatively absorbing book.A faceless director and the fact that this kind of suspense is now over the hill led to public and critical indifference.
