The Salamander

Renting a foreign film, at random, especially one you've never heard of, and directed by someone you're unfamiliar with, can be a wonderful experience if you're lucky enough to wind up with "La Salamandre."

This 1971 Swiss/French production, shot in glorious black and white, is an off-beat satire which mocks bourgeois conformity and culture in oh-so-straight laced Switzerland. Like shooting fish in a barrel? Director Alain Tanner is far too inspired a talent to settle for the obvious.

He takes an absurdest plot -- played terribly straight -- about a couple of down-on-their luck, hapless, hack writers, trying to put together a TV script about a sexy, free-spirited young woman who, "in real life," shot and wounded her uncle for several good reasons, mainly, I suspect, for being boring (a motive I find endearing).

Tanner, best known for "Jonah Who Will Be 25 in the Year 2000," takes his sweet time setting up his eccentric characters and their numskull project, but once in place a lot of genuine laughter arises from the work of his gifted cast, led by the irrepressible Bulle Ogier (the compassionate dominatrix in "Maitress") in their delirious situation. Many great bits, all played straight, are offered, including a government inspector of "civil decency" popping up for an investigation. Much of this inspired stuff seems like it could have been written today and definitely not about the Swiss.