Paris Nous Appartient begins at the end-with a mysterious suicide. Curious as to why a young Spaniard would take his own life,
Betty Schneider visits many of the places frequented by the dead youth. She learns from theatre-director
Giani Esposito
that the suicide victim was part of a sinister international
conspiracy. She further learns from American-expatriate Daniel Crohem
that
Esposito has also been targeted for persecution by the conspirators. By the time
Schneider realizes that the conspiracy was merely a figment of the neurotic Crohem's imagination, the terrified
Esposito
has killed himself. The intrigues of the plot take second place to the
film's centerpiece: an eternally-in-progress stage production of
Shakespeare's Pericles, Prince of Tyre. Now regarded as one of the
pioneering efforts in the French "New Wave" movement,
Paris Belongs to Us was also the first feature-length effort of director (and former critic and film theorist)
Jacques Rivette.
