OVID.tv Presents FOOL’S MATE Film Review — Life Is A Game of Chess

After some idle chatter and love-making, he surprises her with a mink stole. The pelt of the beast becomes the stakes of the match. How will Claire hide it from her husband? The adulterous pair hatches a plan: put the fur coat in a suitcase, and pretend to be a traveler.

A taxi is reaching the bus terminal. Claire is nervous and excited at the same time.  Claude is willing to please her in any way. The couple leaves the mink in a suitcase in the luggage room. With satisfaction and glee,  Claude gives her the delivery note, describing their ploy as a crime parfait. 

Later, at home, Claire tells her husband Jean that she found the ticket on the floor of the taxi, and persuades him to collect the baggage the day after.

Now the wind turns, the chessboard tips because the husband is wiser than she thinks.  What follows is the first attempt at checkmate. 

Fool’s Mate—A Good Chess Player Is Always One Move Ahead of His Opponent 

No spoiler here!  Suffice it to say that the moral of the story: is that a good chess player is always one move ahead of his opponent. The move is called the Scholar’s Mate. Only a beginner will fall for it.

OVID.tv Gives Us This Historic Work of French New Wave Cinema

True to French New Wave cinema, there’s little theatricality by the actors embodying their characters. It feels like seeing a series of actions with their direct consequences. Claire, her husband Jean, and the lover Claude enact their characters in a very simple and straightforward way, without ever giving them too much emphasis. And, true to this cinematic form there is narrative ambiguity, such as when Claire ends a  scene by raising her glass of Champagne contemplating the bubbles.