Moderato Cantabile is a carefully woven tapestry of emotion that begins with a jealous lover murdering the woman he loves. Fascinated by the crime, Anne returns several times to the bistro where it took place, drinking through the afternoon with the worker who patiently answers her eager questions, inventing what he does not know. This is a haunting, oblique love story, which perfectly demonstrates Duras’ technique of associating human emotion with locales and landscapes.