LUCIEN Lhotte, a dwarf, whose small stature reduces him to an outsider in the world of grown-ups has been a conscientious employee in a law firm for over ten years. Now one of the vulgar and abusive letters he writes up for divorce cases opens up a door to sensuous pleasures he has not previously known. Yet, the curvaceous and voluptuous opera singer (Anika Ekberg) uses him as a toy boy only to abandon him again for a more presentable lover. That's when Lucien sets out to take revenge on society and its conventions.

Shot in stark, intriguing black and white, the tale is meant to provoke, disturb and distance the viewer. Director Le Moine indulges in an aesthetic of the grotesque, making a point of repeatedly violating political correct sensibilities. While forcing the viewer to recognize accepted codes of behaviour, he fails to give his composition a sense of unity. On the one hand, he uses the device of alienation to present a terrible plight with daring openness. At the same time, he creates a fairy-tale like world in the setting of the circus, which seems to be drawn from nostalgic black and white pictures.

This other world, where Lucien bonds with a little girl and eventually becomes a successful clown remains thoroughly inaccessible. Unsettling and thought-provoking this tale may be, but Le Moine also lost me somewhere on the way.