Directed by Claude Lelouch

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Set on the French Rivera and full of sports cars, speed boats and luxury launches, this French film has stories within stories as it zigzags back and forth in time. All the characters are on the run and some of them even have to ‘kill off’ former personas. There’s the teacher who has abandoned his wife and kids, the serial killer who has escaped form prison, the hairdresser whose fiancé ditches her just as she is about to introduce him to her family, the best selling author who is at odds with her ghost writer and more than one magician.

Everyone is on a journey (both actual and symbolic) and their paths overlap and intersect, and the challenge of this tightly scripted thriller is to find out what each of the characters is hiding and who they really are. Most of the action centres on best selling author Judith Palitzer (Fanny Ardent), her dissatisfied ghostwriter (Dominique Pinon) and the hairdresser Huguette (Audrey Dana) who is desperate to please her family. Suspense is guaranteed, as the characters’ real identities are unraveled.

Perth International Arts Festival film season commences at outdoor auditoriums at UWA (Somerville) and ECU Joondalup (The Pines) on Monday 1 December. Enjoy the first-release films with a picnic before the 8.30pm start. Somerville starts with Young@Heart, an uplifting film about a choir in the US whose 70 to 90+ year old singers enjoy rock, punk, disco and more. The Pines starts with Grow Your Own, a comedy about a group of grumpy old men who are challenged when a group of asylum seekers get allocated a plot of land next to theirs to grow vegetables. Crossed Tracks screens 15-21 December at Somerville and 22-24 December at The Pines. See perthfestival.com.au and remember to get tickets at BOCS to avoid the queues.

Lezly Herbert