The movie in the movie and the movie in the making were no longer innovations in the seventies: André Cayatte and Jacques Prévert had done it long before ,in the classic "les amants de Verone "(1948) , the stars's stands in had lived the same tragic story as Romeo and Juliet ; in 1952, in "la fête à Henriette " , Julien Duvivier had allowed himself to explode the genre ,and with a lot a humor at that.
In the seventies ,this kind of movie became intellectual, self-conscious and boring: Soutter"s "repérages, Truffaut 's "la nuit américaine" ("day for night") and this movie belonged to that tradition .
"Projection privée " conceals the paucity of its ideas behind a screenplay which blends real scenes, filmed scenes and the characters' states of mind .The story is downright derivative : a director, Denis,walked out on his mistress Marthe and married a younger woman ,Camille.The deserted woman committed suicide.Undaunted , several years after the tragedy , the director decides to transfer the story to the screen; but Camille is afraid that the story might repeat herself .
The only convincing player in the whole movie is Françoise Fabian ;the others are wasted (Jane Birkin,Jacques Weber) , smug (Jean- Luc Bideau ) or indifferent (Bulle Ogier).There's a "I'll give you a ring and we'll meet up for a bite " flippant side ,between two conversations in which the characters contemplate their navels ; one never believes two of them experimented tragedy ,and if Camille feels remorse, it takes a lot of imagination to believe in her agonies of remorse when she sunbathes nonchalant by her private pool .Hence the preposterous scene in the hospital.
In the seventies ,this kind of movie became intellectual, self-conscious and boring: Soutter"s "repérages, Truffaut 's "la nuit américaine" ("day for night") and this movie belonged to that tradition .
"Projection privée " conceals the paucity of its ideas behind a screenplay which blends real scenes, filmed scenes and the characters' states of mind .The story is downright derivative : a director, Denis,walked out on his mistress Marthe and married a younger woman ,Camille.The deserted woman committed suicide.Undaunted , several years after the tragedy , the director decides to transfer the story to the screen; but Camille is afraid that the story might repeat herself .
The only convincing player in the whole movie is Françoise Fabian ;the others are wasted (Jane Birkin,Jacques Weber) , smug (Jean- Luc Bideau ) or indifferent (Bulle Ogier).There's a "I'll give you a ring and we'll meet up for a bite " flippant side ,between two conversations in which the characters contemplate their navels ; one never believes two of them experimented tragedy ,and if Camille feels remorse, it takes a lot of imagination to believe in her agonies of remorse when she sunbathes nonchalant by her private pool .Hence the preposterous scene in the hospital.