Europa Europa Film Fest 2025 - Finally, Sunday!
Images courtesy of Common State.
François Truffaut is a textbook name familiar to film history students or bonafide lovers of the genre and craft. Known amongst the cinematic circles for The 400 Blows, Shoot the Piano Player and Jules and Jim — integral centrepieces in the sumptuous supper spread that is the 1960’s French New Wave — Truffaut’s feeding of the masses did, sadly, come to an untimely end. And thus, we have his last dessert.
Finally, Sunday! was released in 1983, Truffaut’s last directorial effort before his sudden passing in 1984. Adapted from the 1962 novel The Long Saturday Night by Charles Williams (with other adaptations of his works including the Nicole Kidman 1989 vehicle Dead Calm) we follow estate agent Julien Vercel (Jean-Louis Trintignant) when his being in the wrong place at the wrong time results in a false murder accusation. As more bodies keep piling up, including that of his adulterous wife, Vercel’s plucky secretary Barbara (played by Truffaut’s partner Fanny Ardent) takes it upon herself to solve the murder mystery, getting into schemes that toe the line between justice and jail time.
Finally, Sunday! (or Confidentially Yours in other English-speaking markets) will have one double, triple checking the release date. This feature has its aesthetic pulse firmly locked into the 1960’s. Audiences may believe that is when this story is placed, but the appearance of typically 80’s hatchback vehicles and a chunky Telex machine sets the record straight. Whilst Truffaut never goes out of his way to establish the “when”, the allure of a head-scratching mystery mostly overrides. The turn from the humanist stories of the French New Wave into noir-lite crime is undoubtedly thanks to Truffaut’s enduring respect for American auteur Alfred Hitchcock – the scandal of the race tracks, cabaret bars and secret trysts reeks of the American crime thriller. The thriller, however, is happily married to our French cast's tongue-in-cheek farce, making for an engaging, chuckle-inducing mystery.
Fanny Ardent (known for The Woman Next Door, La Belle Époque and her support of Roman Polanski) is a knockout as Barbara, stealing every scene with her humour, wit, determination and inventiveness: a veritable French Geena Davis! However, Jean-Louis Trintignant as the wrongly accused Vercel feels entirely wooden, his face barely twitching in response to his line reads. It makes the complicated relationship between employer and employee feel stiff and disingenuous — however, their light moments of shared realisation in their illicit investigations does smooth the gravel path.
Truffaut noted in his 1966 book on his study on Hitchcock, Hitchcock/Truffaut, that “[…] the theme of the innocent man being accused, I feel, provides the audience with a greater sense of danger. It’s easier for them to identify with him than with a guilty man on the run.” This belief is executed adequately in Finally, Sunday! with sometimes awkward performances and deliveries that are mostly forgiven by the fine adaption of a scandalous mystery.
Finally, Sunday! is screening as part of the 2025 Europa Europa Film Festival, which runs from February 12th to March 12th. For tickets and more info, click here.