The Most Important Thing

Howard Marks, the chairman and cofounder of Oaktree Capital Management, is renowned for his insightful assessments of market opportunity and risk. After four decades spent ascending to the top of the investment management profession, he is today sought out by the world's leading value investors, and his client memos brim with insightful commentary and a time-tested, fundamental philosophy.

Sure it comes across as an arthouse melodrama but Zulawski's L'IMPORTANT C'EST D'AIMER is one of the most moving and agonizingly emotional statements of a theme that runs through much of Zulawski's work (up to his most recent LA FIDELITE) that, as the title states, the most important thing is to love. For Zulawski, love is more important than bourgeous concerns of honor and fidelity which is illustrated in the love triangle of actress (Romy Schneider in what she considered her finest performance for which she won a César award) torn between her moral obligation to husband (Jacques Dutronc) and her growing love for a photographer (Fabio Testi). Sparsely but beautifully scored by Georges Delerue with the same sensitivity evident in his score for Godard's CONTEMPT, Zulawski depicts a world of actors, pornographers, drugs, and violence in which love can be the only saving grace (note the change in Schneider's character between the mirrored opening and closing scenes).