Le reflux. 1965. France. Written and directed by Paul Gégauff. With Jean Blancheur, Franco Fabrizi, Serge Marquand. DCP. In French; English subtitles. 77 min.
The only film directed by the screenwriter Paul Gegauff—a provocative and self-destructive right-wing anarchist and a friend of Eric Rohmer and Claude Chabrol— Le reflux is loosely adapted from the novel The Ebb Tide, by Robert Louis Stevenson and his stepson Lloyd Osbourne. Shot in Tahiti under chaotic conditions, this story of three men who sail together but hate each other gives a supporting role to the director Roger Vadim but a pivotal one to Michel Subor, Godard’s Little Soldier, later to appear in Claire Denis’s 2004 film L’Intrus, which also includes excerpts from this strange and, in more ways than one, cursed film. It has never been released. Courtesy Gaumont