Whether working for auteurs like Truffaut and Godard or for more overtly gynocentric film-makers, Natalie Baye has always demonstrated a naturalistic and ambiguous image of feminist femininity that combines both quiet intelligence and emotional fragility, writes David Parkinson.

Yet, in recent films like Venus Beauty, she has adopted a vulnerable independence that is very much to the fore in this intense study of modern sexual manners that earned her the Best Actress prize at Venice.

Having placed a contact ad to fulfil a long-cherished fantasy, She (Baye) meets He (Sergi Lopez) in a Parisian caf. Confiding intimate details about their feelings, but refusing to divulge the nature of the act, they take an off-camera interviewer through the weekly rendezvous that eventually lead to romance and, thus, allow us (at last) into their hotel room to witness their love-making. However, as genuine emotion insinuates itself and the outside world makes a single, tragic incursion into their dream, the confidence they'd had in each other evaporates and they agree to part. Permitting his stars space to develop their characters, Frdric Fonteyne proves exceptional in capturing the small gestures and tell-tale expressions that give the liaison its truth and individuality (notably having the couple remember differently such significant details as how long the affair actually lasted).

But, by banishing us to the hotel corridor during the early stages of the relationship, he distractingly incites us to mental voyeurism as we try to imagine exactly what Baye's fantasy (perverse or delicious) might be. The presence of the interviewer also poses problems, as his detached, insider knowledge makes the lovers seem like bell-jar specimens rather than humans with lives outside their mutual dependence. Impeccably performed, neatly staged and endlessly intriguing, this is the kind of intelligent adult film at which the French excel and which Hollywood should further explore.