French director Philippe Harel described his extraordinarily original movie as ''a story of adultery filmed with a subjective camera, with only a single protagonist and without any secondary plot''. The camera takes the first-person point of view of a married man (whom we only see briefly in mirrors) as he meets, flirts with, seduces and falls in love with a beautiful young woman (superbly played by Isabelle Carre). Since the the narrative is entirely focused on their affair, and the viewer identifies with the male protagonist, the woman is in fact flirting, seducing and falling in love with the viewers. Most of the film consists of loving close-ups of her beautiful face, sometimes smiling, sometimes laughing, but always looking directly at the camera and allowing us to see in her expressive eyes every nuance of her thoughts and desires. ''La Femme défendue'' is a voyeur's dream come true - it offers a unique opportunity to observe a beautiful, shy, impressionable and hesitant young girl as she reveals the secrets of her heart. The result is an intensely erotic and intimate film, a truly memorable gem. Although originally made for French television, it was selected as an official competition entry at the Cannes Film Festival and then theatrically released to great critical acclaim. Adultery might seem like a tired old subject (especially in French cinema), but here its banality is transcended by the subtlety of the script, the quality of the mise-en-scène, and, above all, the luminous, star-making performance by Isabelle Carre.
