Buffet Froid: Bertrand Blier’s black comedy satire follows the activities of an unlikely trio of men as they wander the nights of Paris. This version of Paris is, for the most part, empty, devoid of life and soul, and that is reflected in the attitudes of the protagonists; they (and pretty much everyone in the film, as a matter of fact) have a cavalier attitude towards life and death, an easy nihilism that transforms them in drones. This is a theatre of the absurd taken to extremes, rather entertaining in its straight-faced tone. The trio of protagonists is played gamely by the actors: Gérard Depardieu, who gets more airtime, as the troubled unemployed man who wanders around town with a knife in his pocket; Bernard Blier, as the police inspector who is a master of compartmentalizing; Jean Carmet, as the scaredy-cat murderer. Cinematographer Jean Penzer makes ample use of the large, modern-looking, and empty spaces to keep his camera moving around elegantly.