Ten days later, at a soirée at the Valandrays' house, preparations are in hand for a performance of Charley's new play "Âmes primitives", set in Mexico.

In selecting his cast, Resnais was insistent that he wanted actors who sang rather than singers who acted, and several of his regular collaborators (Azéma, Arditi, Wilson) appear.

[5] Various cinematic devices are used both to intensify the characterizations (especially with close-ups and direct-to-camera asides), but also to distance the film spectator from the theatrical experience (e.g. dissolves to achieve characters' exits, overhead camera shots for some of the ensemble numbers).

A very different reaction was expressed when the film appeared in Great Britain, where the apparent frivolity of an old-fashioned musical comedy presented by a director previously known for intellectual seriousness caused indignation and incomprehension.

"An inert, sclerotic piece of nonsense with unendurably mannered performances",[9] "a flavourless adaptation... banal lyrics... philistine jokes about the arts...",[10] "laboriously frothy",[11] and "excruciatingly embarrassing"[12] were among the typical responses of British reviewers.

Referring to the use of anachronistic devices, the same reviewer noted that "part of the attraction is also in [the film's] distanced nature - the modernist director has not entirely disappeared".

One indirectly addressed the charge that the film was outdated: "Alain Resnais's dazzling madcap musical ... makes the grim preoccupations of a younger generation appear rather conventional".

[15] One of the strongest defences of the film was made by Jonathan Rosenbaum, who concluded with the following description: "an elegant, funny, creepy, soulful, and formally exquisite period operetta that demonstrates a keen sense of how suffocating polite society can be and how persistent desire is in spite of it.

[6] Pas sur la bouche was nominated for nine César awards, including best film and best director; it won three of them (for best sound, best costumes, and best supporting actor, Darry Cowl).