At this point Sautet seems to be re-staging the bathroom scenes in Godard's Le Mépris, but with the woman wearing a hat in the bath ('like Dean Martin in Some Came Running') rather than the man - who in Le Mépris was, as here, Michel Piccoli.
Here the photographer's manner mimics that of Godard's photographer in Le Petit Soldat: 'Dis quelque chose, n'importe quoi...' - Say something, anything...
