The Salamander

Pierre is a journalist, Paul a writer. For a screenplay they have a news item: a young woman accused of shooting her uncle, she says it went off by accident, he says she fired, the case collapsed. The two go at it from opposite ends. Paul builds the story at his desk while Pierre goes and finds the woman. Rosemonde fits neither of their pictures; she moves from job to job, accounts to nobody, and refuses to step into their story. In the end there is nothing left to write, but the film has gained Rosemonde. Alain Tanner directs the Swiss film; a hundred and twenty-five minutes, with Bulle Ogier as Rosemonde. It was shot in Geneva, in black and white, on very little money. Tanner wrote it with John Berger.