A Frenchman traveling in Istanbul meets a beautiful, secretive, exotic woman who may or may not be involved in a criminal conspiracy. He is entranced, but she remains, maddeningly, just outside his reach as he pursues her.

After writing Last Year at Marienbad, “New Novel” pioneer Alain Robbe-Grillet started his own remarkable directing career with this fully-formed debut, a sexy, immersive, brain-teasing labyrinth of desire and mystery that stands as a bona fide shadow classic of the French New Wave.