«Preference»

Georges Corraface in the role of Max.
Also starring: Jean-Marc Barr, Anna Galiena, Annie Girardot, Marisa Paredes.
Directed by Grégoire Delacourt.
Produced by: Banfilm.
Date: 1998

Max (Georges Corraface), longhauler sailor, just got out of jail. He did 10 years in the slammer for a murder he didn’t commit. His plan is to jump on the first boat out of port; any boat which will take him far away and forever from his native land and the despair of unfullfilled dreams. But Destiny, in the form of Mila (Ana Galiena), is waiting for him at the prison door and again at a nearby cafe.

He follows her downstairs to the telephone booth where she has lost her earring and makes loves to her in the public toilets, mistaking her resistance for a game of seduction. Max never does ship out instead, he checks into a seedy hotel and pursues this strange and ardent woman who seems to know him although they have only just met.

When he trails her he discovers her secret: she is married to his charismatic brother Simon who, in spite of a congenital illness, has over the years become a wealthy man. Max breaks in and confronts his brother, whom he holds responsible for the crime for which he was imprisoned. Max and Simon play at cat and mouse until it becomes clear that neither one knows what Mila is really all about. Simon leaves to try to find her at her country house while Max stays on, prodding her old governess, who lives in the house, to reveal the truth about the past.