Deadly Circuit (1983)

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Isabelle Adjani (The Story of Adele H, Possession) is the ultimate femme fatale—a serial killer who lures wealthy men to their deaths. Michel Serrault (La Cage aux Folles), a solitary detective known as “The Eye,” is in pursuit. Convinced she is his long-lost daughter, he shadows her through Europe, concealing incriminating evidence and helping her elude the police as she changes identities and conducts a blood-soaked murder spree. But when Catherine falls in love with a blind artist (Sami Frey, Band of Outsiders), The Eye’s obsession grows even more extreme—and deadly. A brilliant, seductive, blackly comic Euro-noir confection, Deadly Circuit (Mortelle randonnée) was nominated for five César Awards, including Best Actor (Serrault), Best Supporting Actress (the wonderfully eccentric Stéphane Audran) and Best Cinematography (Pierre Lhomme). Lavishly directed by Claude Miller and co-scripted by father-and-son auteurs, Michel and Jacques Audiard, from Marc Behm’s novel Eye of the Beholder, the title for the 1999 American film based on the same subject directed by Stephen Elliott; and starring Ashley Judd and Ewan McGregor. “The most stylized, the most beautiful, and the most literary of all French thrillers.” — Télérama