Things begin to change with the arrival of Paul (Vincent Cassel). Released on parole after a two year spell in prison, he’s taken on by Carla as her secretarial assistant, even though he’s clearly unsuited to the job. Carla is a woman who is determined to exert some control in her life. Hiring a male subordinate goes some way to establishing that control. But Paul has a past that catches up with him. Owing a large sum of money to a dangerous criminal, he agrees to work for the man to pay off his debt. It’s while he’s working at this nightclub that he enlists Carla as a lip reader to find out what his boss is up to. Carla is installed on a roof opposite, night after night, to spy on the boss’s apartment through a pair of binoculars. Following the conversations of the men in the flat, she’s able to piece together a criminal plot that will lead to Paul’s boss coming into a large sum of money. Paul plans to steal the money, but what Carla doesn’t know is that Paul intends to make a run for it afterwards.

Emmanuelle Devos puts in a fine performance as Carla, successfully portraying not just her vulnerability and her loneliness, but also her increasing determination to get her own way. As the plot unfolds, Carla herself becomes more ruthless, refusing to let the men around her get the better of her. But she’s also attracted to Paul, a man who is very far from the well-groomed personal assistant she hoped for. Cassel is in macho mode here. It’s not the high-powered machismo of his character Dobermann in the film of the same name, but a more seedy, street version. Cassel has the perfect look for this kind of role since he could never be termed classically good looking, and yet what he does have is charisma and sexual appeal. Carla certainly seems to think so. Wrapping herself up in his sleeping bag, burying her face in his soiled shirt, she breathes in the scent of him. It’s just a small part of her sensual engagement with the world that stands in for more direct sexual contact. Her best friend regales her with tales of unrestrained sex with an extra-marital lover who treats her like a “piece of meat..” Carla is both intrigued and made slightly uncomfortable by these revelations, but they serve her well later when she has to come up with a way to get Paul out of a very dangerous situation. When his boss discovers the money is missing, Paul is hauled in and Carla watches helplessly from the roof opposite, looking through her binoculars, trying to find a way to communicate with him.

‘Read My Lips’ is a film with lots of observations about office gender politics. But it also revolves around a set of lonely and emotionally isolated characters. There’s an interweaving back story in the film involving Paul’s parole officer. An older man whose wife has apparently gone missing, he too is revealed as somewhat lonely. But there’s a twist to this plotline that is revealed at the end.

Although the film is a thriller, characterisation is very important, and in that sense it is more character-based than most thrillers. The tension and drama are there, however, particularly when Carla herself goes looking for the money in the apartment, only to be interrupted by the owner’s return, and again later when Paul is caught out by the criminal gang in front of a helpless, watching Carla.

‘Read My Lips’ also has nice observations about hearing impairment, and moments of humour, especially when Paul is struggling to come to grips with the photocopying and binding equipment in the office. It’s not a Hollywood style thriller: there are no car chases or explosions. The film eschews the cheap tricks of American commercial cinema and is more mature and memorable as a result.