THE TROUT

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French novelist and screenwriter Roger Vailland (October 16, 1907 – May 12, 1965) wrote the source material for what would be Joseph Losey's next to last film.

That Roger Vailland was an independent leftest comes through this film's angular perspective on the capitalist objectives of the film's predatory characters.

Isabelle Huppert's character, Frédérique grew up in rural France working on her family's trout farm, where she witnessed her father and his friend taking advantage of young women.

Outraged by the behavior of the men around her, Frédérique sets out on a mission of sexless capitalist revenge against the horny sex. Being asexual comes as an asset.

Now married to Galuchat (Jacques Spiesser), a closeted gay man, Frédérique picks the victims of her particular method of emotional blackmail to flirt with, and thus con, rich men who follow her like lemmings to the sea.

While "La Truite" seems on its surface to be a shallow character study of a judgemental young woman playing power games on an international chess board, the movie gets at unwritten agreements between men and women.

Frédérique's narcissism and greed may provide her with money, but love will not be on offer.

A lack of direct communication between the sexes allows for grey areas open to exploitation. The promise of sex can always be reduced to its opposite because only desire can create such an atmosphere. Everything else is just eggs being squeezed from a fish.

Peut-etre. Jamais.

Rated R. 103 mins.