DIRECTOR BENO& icirc;t Jacquot seems comfortable slipping into the on-the-run subgenre of art cinema (think Pierrot le Fou or Morvern Callar) in his well-regarded if not entirely exceptional À Tout de Suite. The title translates to "right now," but like any existential French gangster picture worth its salt, this is a movie that knows how to take its time: It's more prone to hushed moments of character study than to explosive action. Jacquot's camera and story are unrelentingly committed to Lili (dynamically played by Isild Le Besco), a spacey, sometimes rash bourgeoise who falls hard for Bada (Ouassini Embarek), a Moroccan-born gangster. Lili discovers Bada's occupation when he's stealing away from his last score; he asks if she wants to run away with him, and she – in the great tradition of so many pliable new wave heroes – packs her bags. Alas, though, there's no Bonnie and Clyde guts and glory here. Rather, the burden of so much hot money throws the lovers into one crisis after another, culminating when they're separated by a customs scare. Left alone and penniless in Greece, Lili staggers between strangers, free-falling toward self-realization. The French new wave was formative for Jacquot (he even apprenticed with celebrated director Jacques Rivette), and he wears this influence on his sleeve, both in terms of À Tout de Suite's style (it's shot in black and white, with jump cuts and plenty of close-ups and location shooting) and narrative (episodic, featuring a protagonist who is shaped by her experiences). Good thing, then, that Jacquot is an assured enough director to shape these influences into a stand-alone work. (Max Goldberg)