Love at the Top (Le mouton enragé) (1974) [R] ****

Nicolas Mallet (Jean-Louis Trintignant), a timid, middle-aged, bank clerk, sees Marie-Paule (Jane Birkin), a beautiful but lonely young girl, gazing out at the Seine. She smiles at him and he offers to buy her a drink. When she agrees, he assumes that his luck has finally changed. But when later on they rent a room in a cheap hotel, he discovers that she is a prostitute. Before they make love, he hits her out of frustration, and then forces her to tell him that she came to the hotel because she truly wanted him.

Feeling expansive after his tryst, Nicolas meets his old friend Claude Fabre (Jean-Pierre Cassel), a frustrated, second-rate novelist, in their favorite bistro and tells him about his experience with Marie-Paule. Intrigued and inspired by Nicolas' accomplishment, Claude decides to teach him how to manipulate wealthy, influential people within the Parisian socio-economic system of which he is presently just a victim, in order to transform him into a man whom women cannot resist and with whom wealthy, politically-connected men will want to do business. And then Claude will use Nicolas’ transformation as the basis for his next novel. It’s a brilliant idea but will have unforeseen consequences.

Claude begins by suggesting that Nicolas seduce Roberte (Romy Schneider), the sexually frustrated wife of an aging professor. For a while Claude allows the lovers to enjoy their affair, and even plan to marry and have a child together, but eventually he decides that Roberte is not necessary to his plan for Nicolas and suggests that they separate, which Nicolas resists. Under Claude’s influence, Nicholas quits his job at the bank and begins to meet a succession of increasingly politically and economically influential men and women. Over time Nicholas changes and evolves until he has become the wealthy publisher of a National Enquirer-like scandal sheet, lives in a mansion, drives a Lamborghini and seduces movie actresses. Unfortunately, there are tragic consequences to Claude’s suggestions and Nicolas’ actions, and by the end of the film corpses litter the landscape.

Michel Deville directed Love at the Top (in French: Le mouton enrage) nearly a half-century ago, but its visual style and very intelligent social commentary give it a strikingly contemporary feeling. Love at the Top blends cynicism and social awareness to expose the hypocrisy of a society in which everyone has a price. Trintignant is the star of the film, but Cassel, Birkin and Schneider are equally impressive.

Labels: comedy, drama, Paris, Romy Schneider, satire, tragedy
IMDb 71/100
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