Denis's dispassionate approach to a Parisian murder-noir makes Claude Chabrol look like an emotional wreck. Daïga (Katerina Golubeva), having arrived from Lithuania with minimal French and had her hopes for a theatrical career quickly dashed, works as a chambermaid in a small hotel near Sacré Coeur. Camille (Richard Courcet), a black transvestite, carries on his affairs under the mothering eye of the hotel owner, while elsewhere in the quartier, Camille's brother Théo (Alex Descas), a jazz musician, has given up on Paris and threatens to return to Martinique with his child. With a thriving gay underground and a burgeoning immigrant population, the eighteenth arrondissement is also home to many old ladies who have lived there for ages. Everyone wonders who is killing and robbing them as they come home with their groceries—everyone but Camille and his lover. Based on the “Granny Killer” case of 1987, Denis's film opens up more riddles than it solves, mysteries of intention and desire.
—Judy Bloch