Strangers When We Meet

Richard Quine seems here very different.This is not exactly an entertaining movie but rather a middle-class group study focusing on Novak and Douglas ' characters.Absolutely unmelodramatic,with no spectacular scenes -except for two fightings- .Novak's memory of her affair with a trucker could have been treated as a flashback;but she simply tells it to her new lover Douglas,and the camera shows her mouth in close shot.Except during the party,the characters brush against each other more than they really meet.

Actually it's closer to European ,particularly Italian cinema of the same era:Antonioni comes to mind,'l'avventura"(1959)and chiefly "la notte"(1960).Delicacy,painful frames of mind,wistful looks,in a muffled atmosphere,with more whispers than cries:Quine proves that a scandalous topic such as adultery can be handled gracefully.Unlike further works as "the world of Suzy Wong"(1960) or "sex and the single girl"(1964),this is true psychological drama.