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The Lady In The Car With Glasses And A Gun

THE LADY IN THE CAR WITH GLASSES AND A GUN (Joann Sfar). Subtitled. 95 minutes. Opens December 18. For venues and times, see movies.nowtoronto.com. Rating: NNN


The Lady In The Car With Glasses And A Gun, like Berberian Sound Studio and The Strange Color Of Your Body’s Tears, is a period drama that lovingly replicates the cinema of a vanished era. In this case it’s the lush, eroticized atmosphere of European psychological thrillers of the 60s and 70s. 

A new adaptation of Sébastien Japrisot’s twisty 1966 novel – previously filmed in 1970 with Samantha Eggar and Oliver Reed – it stars Scots actor Freya Mavor as Dany Dorémus, a Parisian secretary whose -impulsive decision to drive her boss’s car to the south of France – just to see the sea – throws her into a waking nightmare of mistaken identity, sex and murder. 

There’s an explanation for what’s going on, but it’s the least compelling thing about the -movie, to the point where even the character who answers all the questions acknowledges how ridiculous the whole thing is. 

At any rate, director Joann Sfar (Gainsbourg) is far more interested in the hazy, overheated world through which his eponymous protagonist wanders. And when the film lets her do that, it’s fun to drift along in her wake.   

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