Lena Paugan's gaze. The way that as usual Garrel's B&W cinematography imbue every movement with symbolic charge. All those stolen glances and gestures that suggest all of life is a bit of a Garrel film minus the suicide. Some has described this as Garrel's Woody Allen-type comedy but the film is less a comedy than it applies a sense of humor about his lead wounded ego and overall boorishness that moves Garrel closer to Hong's territory. His previous film was called Jealousy, but Merhar's casting (and he is wonderful as usual) makes it easier to connect this to Akerman's La Captive.