mildly depressed and cynical and burn out author of mystery sarah morton ( charlotte rampling and seamless if unlikable here ) be advise by her literary agent and lover john ( charles dance ) to spend some away time at his château in the south of france . she take him up on it and move in and proceeds to right away fall in love with the breathtaking scenery and the sunny and warm and quiet atmosphere of the area ( contrast by the gray and noisy and perceivably cold dank of london and show at the beginning ) . thing seem nice and copascetic until john daughter julia ( ludvignie sagnier and stunningly beautiful and vibrant ) show up and party until the we hour and bring boyfriend with her to create plenty of noise and distraction for sarah . the two reach a truce at some point and and they both discover that they may have more in common that they either one thought . director francois ozon steer this movie toward be more image heavy and mean that the stuff we see here representthe swim pool and the interior of the house and the village and the physical appearance and demeanor of the character and particularly sarah and julia be all very important to how we view and understand the film . there be plenty of long and slow and silent moment where the movie be maybe test more pedestrian audience to see if they can hang with a film that be relatively low in action and where the suspense be mostly imply until the last quarter of the film . it strength really be it sensuality representnot just ms. sagnier sexiness and but also the feel of two people who be experience the same house with different attitude and different reaction . the suspense part of this film and i do not think i be really give anything away here by preface this slowly build and which may seem a little unusual for american audience and since film here in the u. s. that be consider suspense usually want to set the stage and tension as fast a possible to not lose the audience . have say that and i would say that i be probably more comfortable in the latter type of film than the former and but this movie be still a nice change of pace where that concern . if the storyline or incident in the film confuse you ( or you just want to see miss sagnier again and and i know i do on both count ) and you may need or want to give this a re watch . this movie be definitely worth a look .