With a graceful round of self-deceptions and mistaken identities, exquisite rationalizations and fortuitous accidents, Rohmer pierces the glossy veneer of the social scene and the dignified realm of art to reveal the sexual fury that they embody.

There's irony but no cruelty here; Rohmer is not making Louise the butt of the joke or saying "serve her right." It's simply in the nature of stories illustrating a proverb that someone is bound to suffer from the principle at stake.

It's as elegant and incisive a comedy of manners as ever from Rohmer.

This is the most ironic and, in many ways, judgmental of [Eric] ohmer's films.