Alice (Anne Parillaud) is a French artist invited to expose in New York. Her boy friend, the boxer Franck (Patrick Aurignac) has just moved to live with her, when her deranged sister Elsa (Béatrice Dalle) leaves her husband Thomas (Alain Chabat) and their children alone and comes to stay with the couple, destroying their relationship. This movie is a great deception. Having a magnificent French cast and a great atmosphere in a weird triangle of love, it concludes in the worst way like in a vulgar erotic thriller. In the end, only the nudeness and beauty of Anne Parillaud is worthwhile. My vote is five.

Title (Brazil): 'Seis Dias, Seis Noites' ('Six Days, Six Nights')

Anne Parillaud and Beatrice Dalle, well-matched in both looks and acting styles, are sisters (or are they?) who reunite after a long time; Parillaud is the more level-headed one, an artist who is trying to buld a "normal" life. Dalle is the impulsive one, who walks out on her (cheating) husband and two kids, crashes her sisters' apartment (with a panoramic view of Paris, no less) and disrupts her seemingly promising affair with a boxer. This steamy, adult psychological drama, with thriller overtones, is rather thin plot-wise, yet darkly compelling. In other words, not a lot happens in it yet I was never bored. **1/2 out of 4.

Diane Kurys manages a very substantial shock without any blood (or maybe a drop). More shocking is the low rating I find my IMDB companions give this film. Its simplicity moved me, and Kurys gets a lot of suspense without straining for it. The actors are all pretty good looking, too. The film says a lot about a woman striving for independence, and suggests that she may have succeeded.