Philippe Noiret gives a cunning performance as Christian Legagneur, a popular French t.v. personality whose rosy visage masks a profound contempt. When a young journalist, Wolf (Robin Renucci), proposes a biography of the star, Legagneur invites him to his country estate, where the unmasking of all begins with the journalist who is no journalist, and ends with Legagneur, who is no Santa Claus. Involved in the suspenseful unravelings are Legagneur's sickly goddaughter (Anne Brochet) and the ghost of her companion, Wolf's sister. "Chabrol's third production for leading indie Marin Karmitz is currently shaping up commercially as one of the New Wave veteran's box-office best," writes Variety's Lenny Berger. "(He's) again rattling skeletons in well-kept bourgeois closets. It would all sound hollowly familiar if it were not for Chabrol's cool, stealthy direction and a fine cast headed by Philippe Noiret."