Les seins de glace Aka Someone is bleeding (1974)

     

      

  "Love is blind"

Directed by Georges Lautner (Galia, The Road to Salina) 

Written by Jean-Pierre Mocky and Giovanni Simonelli from a scenario by Georges Lautner that was  based on a Richard Matheson novel "Someone is Bleeding."

The actual French title translates to "Icy Breats."

Cinematography by Maurice Fellous, Music Composed by Philippe Sarde

The film stars Alain Delon as Marc Rilson, Mireille Darc as Peggy Lister, Claude Brasseur as François Rollin, Fiore De Rienzo as Denis Rilson, Emilio Messina as Steig, André Falcon as Eric Carner, Michel Peyrelon as Albert and, Nicoletta Machiavelli as Mrs. Rilson. 

Story

We get a montage of a seascape with seagulls and deserted off season beaches, cycling sports bars, along the Marseille–Ventimiglia railway. The gulls are dipping and diving on bait in the wash of the breaking waves. Trains from Nice and Ventimiglia pass through our view. We hear typing sounds.

François Rollin in V.O. is describing the seascape and the gulls.

It's a beach in Antibes on the French Riviera between Cannes and Nice. France. We cut to a script writer for a TV series, François Rollin is typing out his tale, seated in a cozy looking nook while smoking a cigarette. Scattered about is the paraphernalia of a typical writer, a dictionary, a filing cabinet, a bottle of booze.

Claude Brasseur as François Rollin

François Rollin [as he types]: When he got close enough, he recognized Clair.

We cut back to a view down the beach. We hear a string and guitar tune, and watch as a blonde in a big fur coat walk up the beach towards us.

Mireille Darc as Peggy Lister

Is this Claire?  At this point we don't actually know. But that thought is quickly dispelled. 

We cut back to François, now standing on the beach in a coat and scarf, staring in wonderment at the blonde coming towards him. 

He can't believe that the sequence that he just wrote about is happening in real life. 

François Rollin [to himself]: No way.

François Rollin [to the woman]: You won't believe it but I just wrote something that silly.

Peggy: Excuse me?

François Rollin:  Incredible. The same beach, the sea, the cries of the gulls. My hero is walking and bam, he runs into my heroine. How is it possible to write silly things like that? That's where I stopped because I was on the verge of depression. Right. How is it possible to write silly things like that? Actually it is. I'm the proof. Thankyou. 

Peggy: Are you a writer?

François Rollin: Not really. I'm a scriptwriter for a TV series. Bang, Bang! That's me. 

He goes on to explain the difference in a metaphor between the scriptwriter and Shakespeare. He asks her if she watches TV, she tells him never.   

François Rollin: Good than we can stay friends. What have you in common with Claire my heroine, is that you are walking on a beach, alone in winter. But wait, Claire has a specific reason. do you? 

François keeps babbling on. Following Peggy up to her car. 

He pesters her about her reason for being there. He makes up that maybe she had an infection and she was staying by the sea on doctors orders. Peggy is pretty much ignoring him. 

Up at Peggy's 1974 Innocenti Mini 1001 Exportar, she tell him she's married while he tries to get her to give him her phone number. She drives off.

We cut to François on his 1972 Yamaha DT 125 a few days later, hunting for the 74 Mini. 

When he finds it he parks the Yamaha, and hops into the passenger side of the Mini.  

 Peggy comes out of a market carrying shopping bags. 

She gets to the mini opens the door and throws one of the bags to the passenger seat and its grabbed up by François surprising her. He tosses it to the back seat. Peggy gets into the driver's seat, and glares at François.

François Rollin: Do you come here often?

Peggy: Kindly get out and leave me alone.

François Rollin: What's wrong? I stepped into your car like you stepped into my life. I haven't slept written or eaten for three days.

Peggy starts to get out of the Mini, but François grabs her arm. 

François Rollin: Please wait for 26 minutes. I lost 26 minutes of an episode because of you. You owe me 3,000 francs. But I also left my sick little heroine shivering on the beach. Can you believe it, and she's still there.  

Peggy finally tells François her name and insists that he get out.

François gets out and still persistent, dramatically lays down in front of the Mini. Peggy shifts into reverse and drives around him.

François is rewarded when Peggy puts the Mini into reverse er down finds out that her name is actually Peggy, she's divorced, and he gets her phone number which she writes backwards for him with lipstick on the Mini passenger side window. 

We cut to François riding his Yamaha up to Peggy's address. He rings the bell at the gate and this big gorilla named Albert opens the gate, asks François who he is. 

Michel Peyrelon as Albert 

He shuts the gate and returns and lets him in, taking François into the foyer and tells him to wait. While he's waiting Peggy calls down to stairway and tells François to come up.

Peggy is putting on her coat and tells François that she wants to go out. They get in the Mini and they drive off. We cut to Albert immediately picking up a phone, and soon after we again cut, this time to a black 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 sliding out of Peggy's driveway. they are off on a drive towards Èze,  France

While Peggy and François are driving along one of the curvy hillside roads that hug the Alpes-Maritimes, that run along the coastline along cliffs that drop down clear to the Mediterranean Sea. The 1969 Fleetwood suddenly appears in the Mini's rearview mirror. 

When Peggy sees the caddy, it starts tipping Noirsville when she suddenly puts pedal to the metal on a narrow hillside switch back. It's a wild chase through these hairpins. 

The mini half skids around a switch back, with wheels squealing, boddy tipping, chased by the Caddy and both zig and zag around slower traffic and road maintenance vehicles on blind corners.

François is, of course a bit freaked, by this sudden transformation in Peggy. He announces each obstacle out loud, as if Peggy can't see it, as he is being tossed about in the car. 

Peggy loses the tail by making a skidding left turn through a break in the rock wall. The Caddy doesn't see them and passes right by the opening in the wall. 

Peggy backs out informing François that she wants to go back home, and by the time they get back to Peggy's address it's dark, Peggy tells François encouragingly, that she  wants to see him tomorrow night.

While watching Peggy through the gate, he sees who we assume to be Albert walk up to Peggy before she gets to the door.   

When François splits through the gate, he notices another man inside the gate and off to the side. He also sees the Fleetwood parked up the street and Steig the bearded chauffeur at the wheel. 

The next day, François writes Peggy a funny warning note about the strangers he saw lurking about her house, and asking her to call him soon. Cut to François  riding up to Peggy's house on his Yamaha and rings bell and drops the letter in Peggy's mail slot, and rides off. 

Peggy replies a few days later with a phone call telling him that it was her lawyer and his chauffeur that was at the house when he left the other night, She asks him to come on out. 

Once in the house Peggy seems a bit standoffish, and François notices, Albert appearing to be watching them. He suggests they go for a walk and Peggy agrees. They head outside.

As soon as they go out the door Albert picks up the phone again. Peggy and François make a date for the next day to meet at François apartment.

Peggy and François make a date for the next day to meet at François apartment. 

We cut to François shaving for his date. 

When just about done, the doorbell rings and we get a humorous sequence with François spraying some deodorant and then starting the phonograph so that there's music playing as he opens the door, only to see Steig, the bearded chauffeur telling him that Peggy wants him to meet her at her lawyers. 

We cut to the Fleetwood driving up in a big estate to a large mansion. From a low angle through a balustrade wall we see a dark haired woman in red watching the Fleetwood, with a reverse view to François getting out of the car.

François is met by a butler who brings him to a sitting room to wait while the butler continues on into a game room. He returns and tells François to go ahead in. It's a nice wood paneled game room. Playing billiards is lawyer Marc Rilson and his brother Dennis. 

Mark introduces himself as Ms. Lister's lawyer. He invites him to sit and offers him a drink. François  asks if Peggy is here? At this point Marc asks his brother Denis to excuse them. 

Alain Delon as Marc Rilson

It all starts accelerating towards Noirsville,

Marc Rilson: I'm sorry I brought you all the way here but I wanted to talk to you about Ms. Lister. For the past five years anything and everything pertaining to Ms. Lister concerns me directly. What do you know about her exactly?

François: Excuse me?

Marc Rilson: Did she talk about herself, her life, her past?

François: I don't understand your line of questioning?

Marc Rilson: Ms. Lister didn't tell you I was in charge of her business?

François: She did say you were in charge of her divorce.

Marc Rilson: She told you about a divorce?

François: Isn't she divorced?

Marc Rilson: Ms. Lister has been gravely ill. She's convalescing, under constant medical care. 

François [smirking]: She's the picture of health.

Marc Rilson: A few years ago she married a drug addict. Because of him she started abusing drugs. She then fell into a neurosis induced by substance abuse. She still suffers from its psychological after effects. Most particularly her understandable aversion to men. She went to rehab several times and is clean now, but we don't know if she'll ever completely recover.

François: What's that all about. 

Marc Rilson: I understand it's hard to believe, but I can show you her psychiatric file if you'd like?

François nods his accent and Marc leaves the billiard room to go get the files. This provides the opportunity for Denis. who has been eavesdropping on this whole conversation, to duck back into the billiard room and speak to François.

Fiore De Rienzo as Denis Rilson

Denis Rilson: I overheard part of your conversation. My brother forgot to mention one thing about Ms. Lister, I don't think its in her file.  He loves her.

At this we cut to see Marc returning with the files hearing his brother spill the beans. 

Denis Rilson [continuing]: He wants to marry her.

Marc slams the door and Dennis is startled. Marc glares at Dennis as he walks back across towards François with the files. 

He gets about halfway there when a drink is dropped dramatically from the second story balcony. We cut to the drink hitting a brass "couvre-joint de sol" (floor carpet floor joint cover). and smashing the glass. Everything stops all eyes are on the glass shards strewn on the carpet. 

Mrs. Rilson: Denis also forgot a small detail. 

We cut to an angle looking up at the carved wooden railing and at Mrs. Rilson. 

Mrs. Rilson: Mr. Rilson is already married. I am Mrs. Rilson. 

François gets up, and walks over to Marc and asks if he would ask his driver to take me back, and walks out of the room. 

Nicoletta Machiavelli as Mrs. Rilson.

Marc stares a bit more at his wife before dropping the files and taking a moment to paus and stares at his brother before following François Marc catches up to François as he is putting his coat back on. 

Marc Rilson: I didn't lie to you. Ms. Lister is very ill. You need to leave her alone Mr. Rollin. 

François: You already set a date for the wedding? 

Marc Rilson: I didn't want to get to this.

François: To what?

Marc Rilson: She's not divorced, she's widowed. Her husband was murdered. 

François: How?

Marc Rilson: She Killed him. 

François looks surprised.

Marc Rilson: Yes, yes. I was her defense lawyer, when was acquitted after medical inquiry, but she's not cured. 

François: May I leave? 

François gets in the Fleetwood asking Steig to take him to Ms Listers. Of course François questions whether or not to believe Marc and it goes Noirsville. 

Noirsville

A good little Noir that received good reviews and made money. Alain Delon, Mireille Darc, and Claude Brasseur are spot on. Definitely worth seeking out and watching. - 7-8 /10.