Betty
Schneider, Gianni Esposito, Françoise Prevost, François Maistre,
Jean-Claude Brialy, Jean-Marie Robain, Claude Chabrol
Paris Nous Appartient begins at the
end-with a mysterious suicide. Curious as to why a young Spaniard
would take his own life, Betty Schneider visits many of the places
frequented by the dead youth. She learns from theatre-director Giani
Esposito that the suicide victim was part of a sinister international
conspiracy. She further learns from American-expatriate Daniel Crohem
that Esposito has also been targeted for persecution by the conspirators.
By the time Schneider realizes that the conspiracy was merely a
figment of the neurotic Crohem's imagination, the terrified Esposito
has killed himself. The intrigues of the plot take second place
to the film's centerpiece: an eternally-in-progress stage production
of Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Now regarded as one of
the pioneering efforts in the French "New Wave" movement,
Paris Belongs to Us was also the first feature-length effort of
director (and former critic and film theorist) Jacques Rivette.
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