An Amazing Couple

Feeling ill, Alain Coste (François Morel), a successful patents lawyer and businessman, goes to see his doctor. A biopsy is scheduled for the following week. Despite reassurances that it's all regular procedure, Alain worries he must be terminally ill and starts thinking about his will.

Unsure what to say to his Italian wife Cécile (the ever-beautiful Ornella Muti), he tells a lie.

Worried by Alain's behaviour and believing he might be having an affair, Cecile asks her teaching colleague Agnes's husband Pascal, a policeman, if he can see what's up.

But Alain soon notices Pascal and, noticing his wife's strange behaviour, puts two and two together and realises – or believes – he is the target of a conspiracy…

The scenario for the second part of Lucas Belvaux's Trilogy could have been developed in at least two basic directions. Alain is right and we have a thriller – Finally Sunday, perhaps – or he is wrong and we have a classic French farce – The Idiot's Dinner, The Closet not to mention, of course, Moliere – where a simple misunderstanding escalates to ever-increasing comic effect.

In the event, keen to mix things up – the first film of the Trilogy, On the Run is more like a thriller and the last After Life a hybrid of policier and intimist drama – Belvaux opts to play the film primarily for laughs.

But, while there are many laugh-out-loud moments here one rarely forgets the underlying seriousness of the piece – of a modern world of miscommunication, mistrust and isolation – particularly if it is being seen in the light of the other films and the viewer is aware, for instance, of Pascal and Agnes's situations.

The ambivalent mood recalls another obvious point of reference and influence, namely the late Krysztof Kieslowski. Whether Belvaux likes it or not, his Trilogy is sure to engender comparison with the Three Colours triptych.

Avoiding obvious thematic and colour strategies – the liberty/equality/fraternity and red/white/blue of Kieslowski's films – Belvaux is more adventurous than the Polish director in replaying key scenes from genuinely different perspectives. As a result, while the films of the Trilogy can certainly be enjoyed on their own, the viewer's overall appreciation for them – and the scale of Belvaux's vision – grows exponentionally when their are viewed in their totality.

A modern classic in the making?