This film depicts a man who discovers that, in the course of carelessly tossing away his stable lifestyle, he is given an opportunity to adopt a more invigorating existence. Action opens with leftist street demonstrations in Paris being suppressed by police under leadership of a senior official whose restive mistress Carol (Clio Goldsmith), obviously having a bad day, informs him that she intends to seek satisfaction with the very next man she comes across. This individual is Serge Liané (Patrick Dewaere) whom she espies from a window as the owlishly bespectacled philosophy academician is studying a book store display of his own recently published volume, and she follows him to a bank and to a travel agency while he prepares for an expenses paid lecture tour to Barcelona that additionally is intended as a "second honeymoon" for Serge and his wife, that is until he is offered Carol's attractions. It is obvious that he welcomes these since we watch Serge's wife pausing from her packing for the upcoming junket to receive a telephone call from her husband who reveals to her that he is in a hotel bed with a girl that he has just met and that he will be taking this new love to Spain in her place, thus abruptly ending any plan of refreshed marriage vows. Serge and Carol then journey to Barcelona where he essentially makes a complete fool of himself as he attempts to match the sexual urges and fantasy demands of his youthful companion, in the process creating a shambles of his tour and also running completely out of funds. This, however, seems to be fine with Serge, as his voice-over narration states with a lack of detailed observation, because he has, as a self-identified intellectual, discovered an affinity for existing in a fashion that eschews personal responsibility, this being part of a metamorphosis that will be puzzling as well as unconvincing to most viewers as little attempt is made here at character development. Due to the fact that Serge's narration and the camera's eye are seldom synchronous, the storyline lacks credibility, and Lainés choice for a future seems a bleak one, not eased by the playing of Goldsmith, who has the acting range of a lima bean. As she is naked through a good portion of the film, it would appear likely that Serge had not been weaned as an infant, and although such able performers as Jeanne Moreau and Guy Marchand have significant roles, they can do little to clarify a work wherein a bulk of the featured characters' actions are without believable motivation.
Review of Heat of Desire
