Ty Burr writing for The Boston Globe called the film: "An elegantly rambling Franco-Italian affair about the ways we do each other wrong while trying to do each other right….
Three of his novels were adapted to movies: 37°2 le matin (1986; English title Betty Blue) which was filmed by Jean-Jacques Beineix; Bleu comme l'enfer (1986; English title Blue Hell) directed by Yves Boisset; and Impardonnables (2011; English title Unforgivable) directed by André Téchiné.