U.S. Title: The Color of Lies
Literal English Title: At the Heart of the Lie
A painter who gives drawing lessons becomes a suspect in the rape and murder of one of his students. A talk show host tries to seduce his wife. The action is set at a small seaside town where, in addition to those aforementioned events, a string of thefts of art objects is going on. As commenter dbdumonteil points out on IMDB, this film's plot is remarkably similar to 1951 Georges Simenon's novel La mort de Belle, which got a film version released in 1961.
The title gives away the theme of the movie: Truth and Lies, and how they come to rule our lives. A man who lives by the Truth is pitted against a man who lives by Lies. But are those self-descriptions accurate? A man who boasts of living truthfully could be just deceiving himself, while a man who acknowledges that Lying is an integral part of existence is perhaps fundamentally honest. Those paradoxes come to their apex when it is shown that Truth always tries to kill Falsehood, but, because it must conceal its act, what really happens turns out to be the reverse: Lies always kill the Truth and rule the world. One can enjoy the film on a more down-to-earth level, of course: as a whodunit and study of customs. As such, it is quite passable and well done, with a remarkable leading performance and serviceable supporting ones.
Rating: 60
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