Scriptwriter Genet's unsettling ménages--of sexual repression, power, and criminality, of vulgarity and saintliness--are all evident in this drama. The dark tale is played out in the confines of a small French village where the local mavens are the mayor, the chief of police, and a school marm and professional virgin played by Jeanne Moreau. Enter a burly Italian guest worker and his teenage son, and Mademoiselle's passion to be "taken" begins to consume her and everything around her. Director Tony Richardson depicts the cruel side of obsession, as he had the comic in Tom Jones and The Loved One. Jeanne Moreau takes the occasion to pull out all the stops in a portrayal that echoes Greek tragedy, but perversely carries ritual to an inexorable climax in destruction.