In one of the strangest pairings in film adaptation history, French modernist Georges Perec does American pulp bruiser Jim Thompson, with surprisingly harmonious results. Patrick Dewaere, the too-soon-gone premiere wild man of ‘70s French cinema, plays the entirely-amoral Thompson protagonist to the hilt, his frenzied performance driving the film headlong towards derangement. A queasy-funny downer, unmatched as a screen evocation of the purgatorial, sodden Parisian suburbs.
