Synopsis
Henri Boulanger wants to die, for reasons too personal to be explained here. Since his helpless attempts to end his days go down the drain, partly because of a gas strike, partly because of his own impracticality, he ends up hiring a contract killer to send him to happier rubber-stamping grounds. While waiting for the killer to do his job, however, he makes the mistake of sipping, for the first time in his life, a whisky, and finds the courage to encounter the opposite sex eye to eye, also for the first time. Everything would be ready for setting up a family, but, unfortunately, the killer's contract cannot be cancelled.
"The film moves from everyday realism through melodrama towards a surprise ending with a cinematic structure swinging between
Dreyer and
Melville without touching either of them in any way." –
Aki Kaurismäki