Created by Claude Ollier and Hugo Santiago
In Écoute voir…, a 1979 French film, world class beauty Catherine Deneuve plays CLAUDE ALPHAND, a private eye who dresses like a man, favoring a fedora and trenchcoat (this is a clue). She’s summoned to the castle of a young nobleman and scholar Arnaud de Maule  to investigate an attempted break-in. Suspicion soon falls upon the Church of the Final Revival, a cult that recently tried to recruit his girlfriend Chloé (played by Anne Parillaud), who has since disappeared.
There’s a lot of poking around, some intellectual scenery chewing, a few private eye tropes trotted out, a mysterious ray straight out of a Jules Verne novel and — this being a French “art” film done in the seventies — a lesbian scene between Deneuve and a very young Parillaud, which seems to be the most memorable thing about this decidedly minor flick.
Years later, Santiago directed another private eye film, Le loup de la côte ouest (2002), based on a Lew Archer short story by Ross Macdonald.
FILMS
- ÉCOUTE VOIR…
(1979)
Screenplay by Claude Ollier and Hugo Santiago
Directed by Hugo Santiago
Starring Catherine Deneuve as CLAUDE ALPHAND
Also starring Sami Frey, Antoine Vitez, Anne Parillaud, Florence Delay, François Dyrek, Jean-François Stévenin
Respectfully submitted by Kevin Burton Smith.
