A Tout de Suite

A bored Parisian art student's (Isild Le Besco, either incredibly gorgeous or intriguingly homely, depending on the camera angle) terminal case of teen ennui is interrupted when she falls for a Moroccan wild child with a penchant for early bank withdrawals. Soon, a scheme gone wrong causes an impromptu whistle-stop tour of Europe, with the dual specters of dwindling funds and the local fuzz making things increasingly tight. Based on true events, writer/director Benoit (The School of Flesh) Jacquot's sly New Wave crime riff sports some stunningly retro B&W cinematography (and makes magnificent use of a hummably nasty Tangerine Dream '70s soundtrack), but his heroine's essential passivity quickly saps her ever-worsening plight of most of its empathic charge. In the end, opaque stares and pregnant pauses can only pull so much weight, no matter how snazzy the packaging.

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