Jean (Jean Yanne) and Catherine (Marlène Jobert) are in the sixth year of an extramarital affair. He is a film director; she is less educated, as he likes to point out. When he takes her to the south of France on a film shoot, it all falls apart. Then, comes back together. Then falls apart, as relationships, especially abusive ones, do. Pialat's mature and rigorous look at the process is unabashedly autobiographical (actor Yanne even resembles the director). And, though it was his first film with professional actors, and his first box-office success, it is edited with a very personal (dis)orientation ("the overwhelming sense of life re-edited with just the embarrassing and unpleasant bits left in," as Sight & Sound's David Thompson wrote). "This is an important feminist film by a male director. … Considering Pialat's connection to the film, it is a brutally honest self-analysis. Jean Yanne is superb as a loving and destructive man" (Melissa Biggs, French Films).