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Dominique's story, in fact, avoids becoming a cliché only because her breakthrough was so extraordinarily easy. "I found her on the telephone," says Robert Bresson, who directed her in her first film, Une Femme Douce. "When I heard her voice, I guessed that she was beautiful." Like most women famed for their enigmatic charm, Dominique cannot understand what the fuss is all about. Now, far beyond her flaming youth, she does not lead such an unusual life. Though she and Marquand have no plans to marry, they are looking for a house in Provence, where they can raise their child away from the polluted air of Paris, in rustic if very comfortable domesticity. Such is her idea of high romance that one of her main mementos of Christian is a snippet of his toenail—suitably encased in gold and worn as an earring.