Heartbreak Hotel

In a hotel that pays homage to Elvis Presley, five women come together to complete a mission: remove a dead man from the premises. In this jubilant giallo, where the murder of a man federates a friendship between five women, all the clichés of the crime film are undermined: no female character is a victim, the police play no role and the men are useless. Emma Axelroud Bernard, who signs her first film, shows great inventiveness in her falsely pastiche use of the codes of the photo novel and the American film noir, and skillfully combines offbeat humor and feminist pamphlet.

• Comedy

Play