The latest film from Claire Denis begins intriguingly enough, with a man dead on a sidewalk and a young, bruised and naked woman (Lola Créton) weaving through nighttime streets.
The dead man owned a failing women’s shoe factory; his widow (Julie Bataille) summons her brother (Vincent Lindon) to the family’s aid. A rich, ruthless old man (Michel Subor) was evidently behind all the trouble, and Lindon latches onto the old man’s mistress (Chiara Mastroianni).
There’s nothing wrong with dealing out a dense, noir-like plot in tiny scraps — unless, like “Bastards,” the film remains flaccid and tensionless.
Lindon and Mastroianni have torrid sex, then go back to glowering at one another.
The film ends in a spiral of death and decadence, but the assembled puzzle is moralistic and trite; it’s no kind of payoff.