Les Bonnes Femmes : somethings made no sense

All those girls working in a shop but we see no customers
they've all seen the motercyclist following her
and see him close up at the pool, so it's odd he would murder
the girl when he can be identified.

It's an "art" film. It's not supposed to make sense or even follow naturally. That's why snobby film buffs love these type of films and reject mainstream stuff.

"I'm gonna need a hacksaw"

Ah, when all the clues are too subtle for you to grasp - such as Mme Louise's fetish about the hanged man & his blood, amongst others - then it's to be sniffed at as an "art film". Got it.

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Is Belins shop meant to be real or, considering the oddness of proprietor and cashier, a caricature of a workplace? At least it serves to keep the four girls cooped up, bored and chatting to each other during business hours, rather like the animals in the zoo they visit at lunchtime.

Dont you think the murderer will be caught easily? One of the school kids in the woods saw his easily remembered number plate and when he drove off an article (I did not spot what) fell on the track.

Jacqueline signs her own death-warrant when she asks Madame Louise to use her "fetish" (or good-luck charm) in order to assist her in her prospective romance with the mysterious man on the motorcycle.

This "fetish" is a handkerchief dipped in the blood of an executed serial-killer, Eugen Weidmann (an historical figure - the last man to be publicly executed in France, in June of 1939 in Versailles).

This alerts the viewer to the fact that something is not quite right about the resulting relationship - further borne out by the motorcycle man's out-of-control antics on the dinner-date.

You can blame a great deal on the fact that this film is French (and over 50 years old, too!) rather than merely "arty" for any problems in understanding its intent.

Well, none of the girls knew anything about the man, so it's very possible that nobody will ever find him if he leaves town never to return. The ending is intentionally ambiguous: the kid saw the plate number, but will he remember it? He has no reason to give it any relevance.

And yeah, the entire shop has a surreal touch about it, it seems something out of Sartre. The antechamber of Hell. A place where time has stopped.

I wonder whether the creators of the original "Fugitive" TV series (perhaps the greatest ever made) saw this movie, and borrowed the idea of the kid and the number plate, adapting it to create the kid fishing who fails to witness the one-armed man or establish Dr Kimble's alibi.