Originally intended as a piece of a larger production, The Model Couple is a satire that is critical of mass media, technology and government surveillance, and investigates the ways in which liberal societies can become oppressively totalitarian.
[1] In 1970s France, Jean-Michel (André Dussollier) and Claudine (Anémone) are chosen by the Ministry of the Future to be the "model couple", a heterosexual pair to be used as test subjects in order to create "a new city for the new man" in the year 2000.
The couple are visited by guests, including a government minister and the American psychologist Dr. Goldberg, who humiliates Jean-Michel by testing his submissiveness to authority.
Later, a group of teenage terrorists (who are likely also employed by the Ministry of the Future, although this is left ambiguous) invades the experiment chamber wielding fake weapons.
[2] In a review for the Criterion Collection, Michael Koresky describes the film as "soberingly prescient" and "remarkably fresh...a social satire [that] carries a timeless sting".