I'm not sure that I can reasonably explain the pleasure I take in Marguerite Duras's "Destroy, She Said," much of which I find unendurable, but an explanation on some level is worth trying….

Although "Destroy, She Said" avoids most of the vulgar conventional ties to place and character, and although it says very little once that it does not also say twice, it gives the impression finally of precision, eloquence and considerable wit.

The setting … might do for a low-budget remake of [Resnais's] "Last Year at Marienbad."…

Thor and Stein are "about to become" writers, a professional status that the movie accepts without comment.

I find that I also accept a good deal, not only in the film's genuinely brilliant scenes (a phony card game in which Elisabeth is entrapped by the others; a superbly poised mirror scene in which Elisabeth and Alissa more or less exchange personalities...