Chinese Roulette

The saturated greens and reds of a Bavarian forest leading to a castle set the tone for this fairy tale of the wealthy at play—replete with terrible children, neglectful parents, sinister servants, and vampire kisses. A Munich industrialist (Alexander Allerson) and his wife (Margit Carstensen) surprise each other at their chateau: he has come with his French mistress (Anna Karina), she with her lover (Ulli Lommel). Wickedly humorous and archly instructive, nodding as much to Claude Chabrol and Ingmar Bergman as to Douglas Sirk, this is a film of “camp lyricism of such density it becomes a lethal weapon” (Vincent Canby).