The Captive

Marcel Proust's work does not transfer easily to the screen. He's too literary and complex.

The Captive is filmed like a thriller. A bored rich young man stalks a girl through the streets of Paris. You expect rape and murder to follow. It is quite a surprise, therefore, to discover that she stays in his apartment and appears to be some kind of sex slave.

The intimation is that she's a lesbian and he's impotent. Their relationship lacks continuity.

He wears an overcoat indoors and looks mournful. He is always well turned out. She wears stilleto heels that make a racket on polished parquet floors and has the face of a disappointed angel.

Apart from climbing into his bed at night and waiting for nothing to happen, she leads a dull life. He leads a duller one. He has a big car and a chauffeur and a grandmother. She has girlfriends and an aunt. Is this a film about how weird and boring the upper classes are?

"To dare love a girl takes courage," he says.

"Everything takes courage," she says.

Wow!