Narrative Assault in Laetitia Masson's À vendre

What happens when a detective confuses following with being the object of his search? As the narrative of Laetitia Masson's 1998 film, À vendre , drifts from private investigator Luigi Primo's search for France Robert, a runaway bride, to his own sordid relationships with women, traditions of narrative continuity and authority are violated. In offering a necessarily new take on the adage "violence breeds violence," this article examines the extent to which Luigi's violent disposition, as he searches for France within the narrative, is ultimately expressed as violence to the narrative itself.