A masterclass in genre hopping and jigsaw-puzzle plotting, Lucas Belvaux's triumphant triptych starts hard and spare with thriller On The Run (One), reveals a sense of humour in marriage farce An Amazing Couple (Two) and goes for the emotional kill with melodrama After Life (Three), a gut-pummelling tale of a dogged cop (Gilbert Melki) and his junkie wife (Dominique Blanc). Developing across La Trilogie from not-so-intriguing support players to three-dimensional centre-stagers, it's this latter duo who best illustrate Belvaux's skill at juggling shifts in viewer sympathy as well as cine-style. True, there are flaws in the brushwork - - One's slow to engage, while Two's contrivances eventually irk - - but the grand design dazzles.

DVD Extras:

Proof of just how tightly structured the whole enterprise is emerges in Universal Time, a rather clever chronological reconstruction of one day in the saga using scenes from all three flicks. Other featurettes focus on lensing the same events from different perspectives, while an On The Run alternative ending reveals a grim fate for two of the trilogy's key characters. Throughout the box set's bonus disc there's plenty of insight from Belvaux's excellent voiceover, who quirkily explains his enjoyment of placing cuts between a doorbell's "ding and dong".