Producers: Martine Marignac, Maurice Tinchant
Screenwriters: Pascal Bonitzer, Emanuelle Cuay, Jacques Rivette
Director of Photography: William Lubtchansky
Editor Nicole Lubtchansky
Music Jordi Savall
Principal cast: Sandrine Bonnaire, Jerzy Radziwilowicz, Gr6goire Colin, Laure Marsac.

Jacques Rivette, a founder of the French New Wave and one of the greatest living directors, continues to reinvent and extend the medium with every new film. His films are rigor-ous and playful, combining the stark precision of an old mas-ter and the youthful spontaneity of a director always explor-ing new territory. While his previous film, Haut bas Fragile was a loose, seemingly improvised musical comedy, Secret Defense is an icy murder thriller and a contemporary version of the Electra myth. Sandrine Bonnaire is a research scientist who seeks revenge on the industrialist she believes has killed her father, and the planned murder unfolds with the steely precision of a science experiment. But of course, as the film builds inexorably to its stunning, theatrical climax, things don't go precisely as planned... - David Schwartz