When Senator Henri Page invites a few of his wealthy friends to his mansion for a hunting party, his prized gun collection will find an unfortunate human target. This is an Agatha Christie adaptation after all, and when one of the guests turns up dead poolside, the webs of sexual intrigue and romantic jilting are so tangled that everyone has a motive. Pascal Bonitzer, well-known for his screenwriting collaborations with directors like Jacques Rivette, André Téchiné and Raúl Ruiz—several of which have shown at the SFIFF over the years—writes and directs this crisply paced and witty whodunit. Miou-Miou and Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (who also directs and stars in the festival’s Actresses) head a talented ensemble cast that also includes recent Bond girl Caterina Murino and Mathieu Demy (son of filmmakers Jacques Demy and Agnès Varda) in a terrific turn as an alcoholic novelist prone to inopportune blackouts. The film’s pleasures are many, but chief among them is watching this group of actors at work in Christie’s world of devious socialites, where solving the mystery is only half the fun.

Written by Jérôme Beaujour, Pascal Bonitzer. Photographed by Marie Spencer. With Pierre Arditi, Miou-Miou, Lambert Wilson, Anne Consigny, Valeria Bruni Tedeschi (93 min. UGC International).