Monsieur Hire

Monsieur Hire is a tailor who lives alone, speaks to nobody and is disliked in the neighbourhood. Every evening he turns off his light and watches the young woman in the building opposite. A murder is committed nearby and the police suspect the strangest man available. Then she notices him watching, and her reaction is unexpected: she does not close the curtain. The subject is not voyeurism but the loneliness of both of them. Alice knows Hire is watching and uses it for her own purpose; the film neither romanticises the relationship nor entirely condemns it. The form is tightly controlled. The palette is narrowed, the spaces cramped, and Brahms is used as the score. Most scenes take place between two windows; the camera keeps the direction of looking permanently visible. The source is Georges Simenon's novel, filmed once before in 1947. Patrice Leconte pared the narrative down considerably here and shortened it. The most notable element is the lead. Michel Blanc was known in France as a comic performer; here he plays a nearly silent, expressionless and unsettling man, and that choice builds the film's entire effect. Sandrine Bonnaire plays Alice. Who it is for: viewers who like French psychological thrillers and films with little dialogue. Who it is not for: anyone who wants the character's motivation explained; the film justifies nothing.