Adele (Vanessa Paradis) has a fatal flaw as far as men are concerned, she can`t resist them and she sure can`t pick `em... just as she`s contemplating ending it all she`s offered a job by Gabor (Daniel Auteil) he`s a knife thrower who needs a partner and seeing she was contemplating giving up her life anyway, why not become his target... the numbed Adele is given a make-over and then put to work in Gabor`s glamorous travelling side show... and they`re a success wherever they go - on stage and at the roulette wheel...Of course, nothing so good can last forever and the film charts the individual decline of Adele and Gabor when they become separated.
With this film Leconte shows the depth of his romanticism. He used black and white cinematography - for reasons that seem quite obscure, but the gentle and compassionate approach to this fable-like material is unmistakeable. Auteil is as good as ever - you just expect it from him now, and relative newcomer Vanessa Paradis shows a touching vulnerability as Adele. Perhaps because it is a fable there`s a slight emotional distance in the film, but it`s very entertaining anyway.
