La Fidélité

Andrzej Żuławski | 2000 | ★★
An up’n’coming photographer unaccountably both marries a wealthy publisher, whom she has just met, and takes a job on a muckraking tabloid newspaper, published by a Canadian businessman, whom her gravely ill mother had known intimately not long before she was born. Unsurprisingly, her transition to both of these new enterprises proves somewhat difficult, with her troubled relationship to a maverick fellow photographer greatly affecting both. Elegant mise en scène, committed performances, outlandish characterisation, and ridiculous, whirlwind plotting combine to decidedly strange effect, giving the film an often campily appealing tone. However, at nearly three hours in length, it greatly overstays its welcome.