This is not a great film and not even as good as Vadim clearly thought it would be but it is still likable. Indeed there is much to like, even if Bardot is already past her absolute best look she carries herself well enough and there are glimpses of her beauty. Unfortunately she does not play little miss suburban boring, convincingly and her co-star, Robert Hossein doesn't really begin to cut it as the anarchist/existentialist, and yet… There are very good moments and when Hossein insists on leaving and she chase him to argue her 'love' there is real frisson. Similarly in the terrible moment when he insists on walking from her to take a prostitute, we are drawn immediately into their mutual dilemma. Unfortunately the film does not have the courage of it's convictions or possibly Vadim did not even have enough awareness of his subject, either way this is a great idea for a film yet to be made.

This film seems like more than just a film, it looks and feels like what it would have really have been like to have Brigitte Bardot as your companion in life, for better and for a lot worse, as relationships go. Qualities such as loyalty, caring, warmth, tenderness, understanding, devotion, etc. endlessly flow from her to her suicidal, live-in lover, as time and again she brings him back from the depths of despair and self-destruction, to temporary recovery in her arms. All this, however, serves to make him even more miserable, in the best masochistic tradition, as he falls even more deeply into his alcoholic albatross, rather than face real life responsibility as a sober, productive man with a good woman by his side.Bardot exudes the utmost maturity and restraint in taking the best cheap shots this ungrateful con-artist, female user, and abusive man (Robert Hossein, in an outstanding interpretation of a difficult role) can dump on her. The problem here is universal in scope in that it portrays two people who are physically attracted to each other, to the point of addiction, while at the same time a classic mis-match from a values and a psychological perspective. "You always hurt the one you love," was never more in evidence than for the 102 emotion-draining minutes of this film. Clearly a Vadim masterpiece, and a triumphant collaboration with Bardot, long after their real-life divorce and her remarriage. This represents "professionalism" to the highest degree.

This film is classic Roger Vadim, down to the sexual theme, the gorgeous cinematography, and the incomparable Brigitte Bardot. A young heiress becomes involved with an abusive, power-hungry alcoholic. She loves this crude man, though he treats her savagely, until she begins to realize her own power. When she leaves this man to his own devices, he falls apart, and realizes that he, in fact needs her, and loves her. Basically a battle of the sexes, and she wins. This sounds like a simple story, but Roger Vadim elevates this into a thing of power and beauty, with his extraordinary film technique. His admiration for Bardot is apparent, as he films her 'god-like'. This is classic cinema, and very French in it's style. Feauturing some wonderful late 1960's jazz music, this is a very sexy film, one of the finest Bardot/Vadim efforts. I don't understand the negative reviews. I think it is unfortunate that the DVD for this one is so rare, and goes for over a hundred dollars if you can find it. Along the lines of films like "The Servant", and "Nine & a Half Weeks" in the subject matter of the sexual power struggle between two people. A fine film, worth a look.

This film's interest lies less in its indifferent, sweetly bourgeois bourgeois-baiting, than in its dramatisation of Vadim's mind, his sense of power in having 'created' Bebe; his emasculation as she transcended and abandoned him. This schizophrenia is given the revenge treatment here as Bardot navigates a liberating plot, eventually escaping stifling social respectability and imperiously mastering sadistic lover. This is filmed, however, in a fetishistic way, diminishing her sexual power, while leaving her nakedly vulnerable to the masculine gaze.