Although Delannoy’s later films in the same decade showed a marked deterioration in quality (making him easy prey for the New Wave critics such as Truffaut and Godard), the director is at his best in this film. Not only is the film perfectly constructed, using the flashback idea to great effect, but it achieves just the right balance of studio and location filming, giving the film a sense of realism which gives it a feeling of immediacy and modernity. — James Travers