44/100
Initially intriguing despite the whole sadistic-woman-sexually-taunts-feeble-men-who-desire-her deal, which reliably annoys me (cf. The Blue Angel, The Devil Is a Woman, some non-Dietrich-&-Von-Sternberg examples that I'm blanking on at the moment) even as I defensively insist that it's not due to my feeling personally attacked by them. My distaste seems rooted in how those films psychologically flatten their characters—it's just tedious, for me, to watch one person keep begging Please Please Please and the other person smirk Not Yet Not Yet Not Yet (while always remaining tantalizingly within reach). For a while, at least, that's just not an issue here. Frédérique, as arrestingly embodied more than played by the young Isabelle Huppert, has so little discernible inner life, and behaves like such a self-amused parody of the seductress, that I found myself constantly and incongruously thinking of Scarlett Johansson in Under the Skin. That's how alien and unconcerned with the rest of humanity she comes across, especially at the outset, clad in a white T-shirt with PEUT-ETRE (maybe) on the front and JAMAIS (never) on the back. Unfortunately, La Truite (The Trout; won't do a whole Anal-Retentive Title Corner but it was released with its original title in the U.S.) later becomes positively riddled with explanatory flashbacks to the sexually assaultive rural environment that made Frédérique devote herself to tormenting and financially exploiting any man she can get horny for her (while marrying a closeted homosexual). Still way too reductive for my taste, and most of the distinguished supporting cast (Jeanne Moreau, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Isao Yamagata) seemed squandered to me. I appreciate mega-fan Dan Sallitt allowing that "It's very funny, albeit in Losey's droll way that may not strike some as humorous." Not only did I fail to so much as chuckle but it's unclear to me what the source of any comedy would even ostensibly be; the Loseys I love—The Prowler, The Damned, The Servant—are all pretty mirth-free. Hope I can rewatch it with Dan someday and find out what he's laughing at, though I imagine it's mostly Huppert's serene smile in response to fury.