Director Claude Lelouch (A Man And A Woman) premi red Roman De Gare under a pseudonym, a fitting debut for a gripping psychological thriller rife with deception. Fanny Ardant (The Women Next Door) plays an author of glossy thrillers who has just released her first literary novel. Meanwhile, a distraught woman (Audrey Dana) has been dumped by her fianc on the roadside, only to be picked up by a strange middle-aged man (Dominique Pinon), who also claims to be Ardant's long-term ghostwriter. No one, it seems, is who they say they are. Pinon might also be an escaped serial killer known as the Magician, or a Parisian schoolteacher who has abruptly deserted his family. While the audience is hunting for clues to Pinon's identity, Dana enlists him to pose as her estranged husband-to-be, adding yet another layer of deceit.
