Hitchman, Beatrice: Petite Mort

Set mainly in the years immediately before World War One, this is about the Parisian film industry of
the time and involvement of a young country girl in it when she is taken on as a seamstress and becomes the mistress of a famous director though her desire is to emulate the famous actress of the day, Terpsichore.   Told effectively in flashback, what happens is told to a journalist trying to find
out the trust behind the loss of the film 'Petite Mort' destroyed before ever being shown.   She has
traced the heroine of the film, the young country girl, who has agreed to tell her the story after many
decades of silence.   What follows is a description of film-making at that time, a love affair and its
convoluted development and a mystery which you will discover if you read the book for yourself.
Although the book is nicely written, I did find the characters a tad undeveloped with some of their
actions seeming to happen only for keeping things moving.