***SPOILERS*** Driving out to see their two children spending the summer in camp in Southern France Antonie & Helene Dunan, Jean-Pierre Darroussir & Carole Bonquet, get on each others nerves. Mostly due to Antoine's drinking and Helene's nagging him about it.
Almost having an accident Helene becomes more and more concerned about Antonie's ability to drive and insists to go behind the wheel herself. Antoine, feeling that it's an insult to his manhood and driving ability, staunchly refuses. Stopping in intervals at roadside bars Antoine juices himself up with bottles of beer and shots of whiskey to the point where he misses an exit. This gets him miles off the road to Boaedaux where his and Helene's children are at summer camp.
The last straw for Helene is when Antoine again stops at a bar nightclub and gets caught up with the action and drinking. This has Helene walk out on him and take a taxi to the nearest train station for a ride to Bordeaux. It's then when fate takes hold of Antoine and in his hast to find Helene. Antoine finds an escaped murderer and even worse he almost ends up becoming one of his victims.
Well directed written and acted French Film-Noir melodrama that has you wondering like Antoine if your dreaming or if whats happening, or happened, to you is real or not. Antoine is desperate to find Helene and drives all around the Bordeaux area coming up empty in finding Helene. It's later that he get's some information from a local hospital that Helene is a patient there. At the hospital Antoine finds that Helene was found beaten unconscious and alone on a train going to Bordeaux.
Antoine doesn't really know if the injured woman is Helene or not until almost the end of the movie. To the complete shock of Antonie, and the audience, were told that his wife's attacker is a convict who escaped the other night from prison and was later found in the woods dead run over by a car. This bit of startling information brought Antoine back to reality since he thought that what happened to him the night before was all some nightmare that he had while he was dead drunk alone lying in his car.
"Feux Rouges" is a movie that you have to really stay with and not get too irritated with it's very slow pace and lack of dialog. In some scenes the movie goes on for minutes without a word being spoken. The second half of the film where Antonie is out trying to find his wife Helene has the added suspense to what exactly happened to him the evening before. Thats when Helene left him and he ended up in the woods facing death from a desperate escaped convict. We also find out what exactly happened to Antonie, and his would-be murderer, was far more interesting then where she was and what happened to Helene. In the end it, what happened to Antonie that evening, had a lot more to do with Helene being beaten and hospitalized then even he would have dared to have guessed.
Almost having an accident Helene becomes more and more concerned about Antonie's ability to drive and insists to go behind the wheel herself. Antoine, feeling that it's an insult to his manhood and driving ability, staunchly refuses. Stopping in intervals at roadside bars Antoine juices himself up with bottles of beer and shots of whiskey to the point where he misses an exit. This gets him miles off the road to Boaedaux where his and Helene's children are at summer camp.
The last straw for Helene is when Antoine again stops at a bar nightclub and gets caught up with the action and drinking. This has Helene walk out on him and take a taxi to the nearest train station for a ride to Bordeaux. It's then when fate takes hold of Antoine and in his hast to find Helene. Antoine finds an escaped murderer and even worse he almost ends up becoming one of his victims.
Well directed written and acted French Film-Noir melodrama that has you wondering like Antoine if your dreaming or if whats happening, or happened, to you is real or not. Antoine is desperate to find Helene and drives all around the Bordeaux area coming up empty in finding Helene. It's later that he get's some information from a local hospital that Helene is a patient there. At the hospital Antoine finds that Helene was found beaten unconscious and alone on a train going to Bordeaux.
Antoine doesn't really know if the injured woman is Helene or not until almost the end of the movie. To the complete shock of Antonie, and the audience, were told that his wife's attacker is a convict who escaped the other night from prison and was later found in the woods dead run over by a car. This bit of startling information brought Antoine back to reality since he thought that what happened to him the night before was all some nightmare that he had while he was dead drunk alone lying in his car.
"Feux Rouges" is a movie that you have to really stay with and not get too irritated with it's very slow pace and lack of dialog. In some scenes the movie goes on for minutes without a word being spoken. The second half of the film where Antonie is out trying to find his wife Helene has the added suspense to what exactly happened to him the evening before. Thats when Helene left him and he ended up in the woods facing death from a desperate escaped convict. We also find out what exactly happened to Antonie, and his would-be murderer, was far more interesting then where she was and what happened to Helene. In the end it, what happened to Antonie that evening, had a lot more to do with Helene being beaten and hospitalized then even he would have dared to have guessed.