Gang of Four 1989

Four women — Anna, Fejria Deliba; Claude, Laurence Côte; Joyce, Bernadette Giraud; and Cécile, Nathalie Richard — share a small estate on the edge of suburban Paris and attend acting classes in the city. When Cécile moves out to live with her boyfriend, Lucia, Inês de Medeiros, moves in, drifting the household into a new balance that heightens tensions even as daily life settles into a fragile routine. The departure and Cécile’s reticence about her move raise concerns, but the acting work soon takes center stage, drawing the women deeper into a world that feels both intimate and strangling.

The acting classes are housed in a derelict theater and taught by a demanding former actress, Constance, Bulle Ogier. Constance runs her theater more like a cult than a school: a tiny, highly restrictive, and costly circle in which students must wholly dedicate themselves to her methods, even if it means sacrificing their livelihoods. Her approach leans toward non-constructive criticism, which keeps the students insecure and, paradoxically, intensely loyal for years. The atmosphere fosters a strange mix of admiration and fear, with the students worshipping her presence even as they struggle under her endless critique. The result is a bohemian, elusive existence, largely funded by others, that keeps them isolated from the wider world and prone to volatile outbursts.

Joyce, Anna, and Claude each encounter an eccentric, enigmatic man. Joyce is the first to meet him, and he hands over his phone number; Anna later meets him at an art gallery, where he curiously shields her from danger after an attempted threat. He introduces himself as a former partner of Cécile’s boyfriend, claiming they once forged ID cards and that both Cécile and her beau are in serious trouble. He also appears to know the exact route back to Anna’s home, a detail that unsettles her and those around her. The man turns out to be Thomas, Benoît Régent, a policeman using aliases to slip into the estate in search of incriminating evidence against a judge. He believes a key—last seen falling down Anna’s chimney and then quietly kept by Lucia—will unlock a damning secret.

As the plot unfolds, the film shifts its focus to the women’s domestic unhappiness and tense personal lives, with Claude becoming a focal point. She is in love with a woman, a love that remains unreturned, while Thomas continues his invasive pursuit, adopting the guise of an illicit art dealer to press for the key. He beds Claude in the process, using the opportunity to dig for the elusive evidence he believes will free Cécile’s boyfriend or expose others.

The shadow of arrest hovers as Claude later learns that Cécile’s boyfriend has been arrested on murder charges. The charges may be false, possibly tied to his failed whistleblowing against the judge, and news of the arrest unsettles the group. Even after Cécile moves out, she keeps returning to the acting class, though her performances falter after the arrest. When news breaks that her boyfriend has escaped from custody, her acting suddenly improves, and Constance cancels class, a decision that hints at hidden complicities. It’s implied that Constance herself may be entangled in criminal activity, culminating in her eventual arrest and the disbandment of the theater.

Desperation grows as Cécile searches for the key, hoping to vindicate her boyfriend. Lucia intermittently claims she threw the key into the Seine, though Thomas remains convinced it remains somewhere within the house. After five days, Lucia attempts to poison Thomas with a familiar toxin, only for him to foil the plan; a failed drink, a shattered glass, and a tense struggle ensue. In a climactic moment, the key is finally exposed when Joyce strikes Thomas with a barbell, knocking him out and preventing his escape with the key.

In the aftermath, the four women stage a childlike mock trial for Cécile’s boyfriend, a performance that echoes the sensational trials of other European cinema. The women then reconvene with their former students at Constance’s theater to rehearse a play, but the session proves their first collaborative effort in a long time. Despite their talent, they struggle to complete even a single scene, realizing they cannot act without Constance’s relentless criticism—and they are left unsure whether she will ever return. The final image lingers on the fragile, fractured world they inhabit, where art, danger, and dependence narrowly coexist on the edge of the estate and the memory of a teacher who may be gone for good.