Not to be confused with films of the same title by Nagisa Oshima and Laurence Harvey, this expertly contrived and ultimately shocking 1995 psychological thriller is the best feature by New Wave filmmaker Claude Chabrol since his 1971 Just Before Nightfall. It's a mysterious, haunting tale about a sullen if dutiful maid (Sandrine Bonnaire), a postal worker who becomes her best friend (Isabelle Huppert), and a likable bourgeois family that the two women are fated to despise. Adapted from Ruth Rendell's novel A Judgment in Stone and coscripted by psychoanalyst Caroline Eliacheff, this film unfolds with the rigour of a dream.

Direction: Claude Chabrol.

Screenplay: Claude Chabrol and Caroline Eliacheff, based on the novel A Judgment in Stone by Ruth Rendell.

Photography: Bernard Zitzermann.

Editing: Monique Fardoulis.

Production Design: Daniel Mercier.

Music: Matthieu Chabrol.

Isabelle Huppert...................................................Jeanne

Sandrine Bonnaire.................................................Sophie

Jacqueline Bisset..................................Catherine Lelièvre

Jean-Pierre Cassel..................................Georges Lelièvre

Virginie Ledoyen.......................................Melinda Lelièvre

Valentin Merlot............................................Gilles Lelièvre