the audience applauded

For all the hype it got I was expecting a lot more!

If the ambition is to provide two hours of instantly forgettable, popcorn-munching escapism, it succeeds.

The joyful confection is coated in a sparkly gloss, bright enough to gleam from the darkest, most cynical corners.

Essentially known as Polanski's screenwriter (the famous director collaborated for the screenplay here),Gerard Brach made two movies in the early seventies:"La Maison" (feat Michel Simon) and " Le Bateau Sur l'Herbe ".Well acted by Jean-Pierre Cassel,Truffaut's protégée Claude Jade and British John McEnnery (not dubbed) who manages quite well in French -even if he bestows Hamlet's monologue on us- and stays very natural when he's looking for a word or wondering whether " broken mirrors bring bad luck over here too" .Two boys are building a ship which is supposed to take them to Easter Island ;one of them has a girlfriend .At first ,it might look like a mundane love triangle ;but further acquaintance shows that there's more to the picture than meets the eye.The boys come from very different classes :David is a prole whereas oliver lives in a desirable mansion ,with a chic mother (Valentina Cortese is unbearable ,the only major flaw of this effort);when David asks him to declare him ,for he is his employee,terse answer:"it's for poor people ";David is ill-at-ease during the party with Oliver's mother's friends .Brach creates a strange atmosphere with his ship on the lawn ,and its almost disturbing figurehead ,particularly when he films it at night.And something bizarre is in the air:don't we learn that Oliver's father committed suicide because of his mother?There are many details which foreshadow the final tragedy .Like this?try these....."Noz W Wodzie" /"Knife in the water "(Roman Polanski, 1962): had the boys had their vow, their story could have continued a bit like its co-screenwriter's first feature-length film ."Plein Soleil" (René Clément,1959)