should we take the opening shot a a strange frame . i guess we have to . anyway two woman be behind a closing umbrella and they walk upstairs to the talent agency and we go with them . and then they be never to be see again . okay and how come not inside the place and at the piano and or even outside with the sound of the piano and then track inside and over and a la hitchcock . so i guess clouzot be already tell u in a not very subliminal manner that we be follow a segment of postwar society represent especially how he then use a citizen kane equal like song cut up into about five piece to show the lady sing travel from the talent agency all the way to her first rose and applause of her vaudeville debut . after that we be relentless observer of more or less small disgusting detail of a defeated country get off it war torn tattered knee . and nobody ever handle small disgust well than clouzot . in fact and too bad he never try sartre nausea . almost everything we see after the first few minute make u ever so slightly queasy . . okay and okay i be grossly overstate that and let just settle for a general feel of a lot of the film . look carefully and in fact and and you will even see one of the cop pick his nose . and in how many film have anyone ever do that . then there be a very loud nose blow bit in front of the photographer lesbian by the main cop and and notice that she do not and literally and blink an eye or raise an eyebrow . the point of all this be an almost feverish immersion in contiguity and seemingly and until you can smell practically every scene as well a see and feel it . a for the other aspect of the movie and others here have cover them in a lot more detail than i. but forget about the mystery here represent this be the ultimate mcguffin . clouzot be about as interested in the real killer a those two woman come in out of the rain in the first few second of the film and be never see again . from begin to end all he want to do be follow a bunch of people around and not even particularly interesting one at that and and say and here look at this woman twitch and that man hitching of his pant in all their insignificance and year and year before tina turner be sing we do not need another hero . \even the forced levity of the end be bleakly do in a dilapidated part of paris and and rather chilly bare walled apartment . with only the couple love for each other to see them through and a if to say there must be two or three million like you throughout the city and work your finger off by the day for a little love at night . from this it be just a short step to wage of fear and the ultimate in despair . they do not even know how to make film like this anymore in the u. s. for that matter and they do not even know how to very much in france then and much less now . the relentless detail of gesture make even the neorealists of italy look like bad psychologist . which i guess make clouzot a kind of rosselini on speed . very enjoyable nonsense and this movie . the only flaw and seem to me and and a be point out by another viewer and the lead woman be somehow not quite right . everybody else in the film be just about perfectly cast .