Claude Chabrol was the most prolific of the New Wave directors. He didn’t only do murder thrillers; this fine selection of Chabrols from the ten year period 1985-1994 begins with a pair of detective tales but moves on to a masterful adaptation of a great book and two engrossing experiments, one of them picking up where an earlier French master left off. The players are terrific as well: Jean Poiret, Stéphane Audran, Jean-Claude Brialy, Bernadette Lafont, Isabelle Huppert, Jean-François Balmer, Christophe Malavoy, Jean Yanne, Marie Trintignant, Jean-François Garreaud, Emmanuelle Béart, François Cluzet.
Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol
Blu-ray
Cop au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre), Inspector Lavardin (Inspecteur Lavardin), Madame Bovary, Betty, Torment (L’enfer)
Arrow Video
1985-1994 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 9 hours and 17 minutes / Street Date February 22, 2022 / Available from Arrow Video (UK website) / Available from Amazon U.S. / 99.95
Common Credits:
Cinematography: Jean Rabier (3), Bernard Ziterman (2)
Production Designer:...
Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol
Blu-ray
Cop au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre), Inspector Lavardin (Inspecteur Lavardin), Madame Bovary, Betty, Torment (L’enfer)
Arrow Video
1985-1994 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 9 hours and 17 minutes / Street Date February 22, 2022 / Available from Arrow Video (UK website) / Available from Amazon U.S. / 99.95
Common Credits:
Cinematography: Jean Rabier (3), Bernard Ziterman (2)
Production Designer:...
- 3/8/2022
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
Being called the French Hitchcock does Claude Chabrol a disservice, as his dark thrillers approach mystery and suspense almost completely through character, not cinematics. These three very good 1990s productions are completely different in tone and approach, and each showcases a stunning French actress.
Betty, Torment (L’enfer), The Swindle (Rien ne vas plus)
Blu-ray
3 Classic Films by Claude Chabrol
Cohen Film Collection
1992,1994,1997 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 103, 102, 105 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 49.99
Starring Marie Trintignant, Stéphane Audran, Jean-François Garreaud, Yves Lambrecht; Emmanuelle Béart, François Cluzet, Nathalie Cardone, Dora Doll; Isabelle Huppert, Michel Serrault, François Cluzet, Jean-François Balmer.
Cinematography: Bernard Zitermann; Bernard Zitermann, Eduardo Serra
Film Editor: Monique Fardoulis (x3)
Original Music: Matthieu Chabrol (x3)
Written by Claude Chabrol from a novel by Georges Simenon; Claude Chabrol from a script by Henri-Georges Clouzot; Claude Chabrol
Produced by Marin Karmitz (x3)
Directed by Claude Chabrol (x3)
Not all Claude Chabrol films are equal, but...
Betty, Torment (L’enfer), The Swindle (Rien ne vas plus)
Blu-ray
3 Classic Films by Claude Chabrol
Cohen Film Collection
1992,1994,1997 / Color / 1:66 widescreen / 103, 102, 105 min. / Street Date February 21, 2017 / 49.99
Starring Marie Trintignant, Stéphane Audran, Jean-François Garreaud, Yves Lambrecht; Emmanuelle Béart, François Cluzet, Nathalie Cardone, Dora Doll; Isabelle Huppert, Michel Serrault, François Cluzet, Jean-François Balmer.
Cinematography: Bernard Zitermann; Bernard Zitermann, Eduardo Serra
Film Editor: Monique Fardoulis (x3)
Original Music: Matthieu Chabrol (x3)
Written by Claude Chabrol from a novel by Georges Simenon; Claude Chabrol from a script by Henri-Georges Clouzot; Claude Chabrol
Produced by Marin Karmitz (x3)
Directed by Claude Chabrol (x3)
Not all Claude Chabrol films are equal, but...
- 2/21/2017
- by Glenn Erickson
- Trailers from Hell
BERLIN -- "A Comedy of Power" has a joke built into its title. While the film is no comedy, the point of view from veteran French auteur Claude Chabrol is essentially comic: He sees a clash of power between an investigating French magistrate and corporate executives and politicians grabbing money by misappropriating public funds as an adolescent pissing contest. Everyone thinks he or she holds ultimate power, but Chabrol -- who, after all, as the movie's director is the real power here -- strips away the privileges and responsibilities of the "powerful" to reveal people unable to control even their own lives.
The movie is too parochial for a wide audience. The French judicial system is totally alien to Americans, for instance, plus the film is a talkathon. There are hints in Matthieu Chabrol's Hitchcock-like musical themes -- yes, that's the director's son -- and in moments of extreme paranoia exhibited by characters that a thriller lurks just beneath the surface. If it does, it never appears.
Instead audiences must contend with a soundtrack jammed with dialogue, yet little of what's said about money laundering, corporate restructuring, real estate deals, stock funds and Swiss bank accounts means anything. All that matters lies in the tone of voice and look in the eyes. Consequently, there will be a limited theatrical audience for this seventh collaboration between Chabrol and his star, Isabella Huppert, in North America. Even in Europe, this is art house fare.
Huppert plays a headstrong, relentless examining judge, who according to French law holds unassailable powers. Even in her first scene, it's clear that power has gone to her head.
A pompous though nervous chairman of a major corporation, Humeau (Francois Berleand), is unceremoniously arrested as he exits his Paris office building. He is thrown into prison without concern for his mighty position. The next day, the police drag him before Judge Jeanne Charmant (Huppert) without her even allowing him medicine for a skin allergy.
By the time this first interrogation has finished, our sympathies have switched. Humeau might be a rascal, but we feel sorry for anyone who comes up against the "piranha" judge. Those sympathies extend to her husband, Philippe (Robin Renucci), a medical lab technician who feels power in the household shifted long ago despite the fact he comes from wealth while she was practically the family maid before he married her.
A crafty businessman, Sibaud (Patrick Bruel), supplies Jeanne with leads to investigate charges of embezzlement and misuse of funds in this corporation in the mistaken belief he can control her. The same goes for people up the line of power from a powerful senator to the chief judge. She cuts everyone down to size and loves doing it. Even pairing Jeanne with a fellow female judge (Maryline Canto) doesn't work -- indeed it doubles the women's power.
Perhaps Chabrol isn't talking so much about power struggles as the voracious appetite for control and authority by rampaging feminists. Certainly men are portrayed here as losing the battle of the sexes. Badly. The only redemptive male is Jeanne's husband's nephew Felix (Thomas Chabrol, and yes, this is another of the director's sons). This easygoing bourgeois slacker makes a comic contrast to Jeanne's workaholism.
The movie sags in the middle. Even an acrimonious split between the judge and her husband doesn't raise the emotional stakes because love appears to have gone out of this relationship long ago. More puzzling, a drastic act by the distraught husband and a maneuver that removes the judge from the case lead to no epiphanies for Jeanne. She just doesn't understand that power can be an illusion. When the movie ends on a flat note, it causes one to realize how few high notes it ever achieved.
"A Comedy of Power" is somewhat typical of recent efforts by the great French director -- natural lighting, real locations, well-upholstered decors, veteran actors at home with reams of dialogue and a narrative that favors thought over action and behavior over emotion.
A COMEDY OF POWER
Aliceleo/France 2 Cinema/Ajoz Films/Integral Filmwith the participation of Canal Plus
Credits:
Director: Claude Chabrol
Screenwriters: Odile Barski, Claude Chabrol
Producer: Patrick Godeau
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Francoise Benoit-Fresco
Music: Mathieu Chabrol
Costumes: Mic Cheminal
Editor: Monique Fardoulis
Cast:
Jeanne Charmant: Isabelle Huppert
Humeau: Francois Berleand
Sibaud: Patrick Bruel
Philippe Charmant: Robin Renucci
Erika: Maryline Canto
Felix: Thomas Chabrol
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 111 minutes...
The movie is too parochial for a wide audience. The French judicial system is totally alien to Americans, for instance, plus the film is a talkathon. There are hints in Matthieu Chabrol's Hitchcock-like musical themes -- yes, that's the director's son -- and in moments of extreme paranoia exhibited by characters that a thriller lurks just beneath the surface. If it does, it never appears.
Instead audiences must contend with a soundtrack jammed with dialogue, yet little of what's said about money laundering, corporate restructuring, real estate deals, stock funds and Swiss bank accounts means anything. All that matters lies in the tone of voice and look in the eyes. Consequently, there will be a limited theatrical audience for this seventh collaboration between Chabrol and his star, Isabella Huppert, in North America. Even in Europe, this is art house fare.
Huppert plays a headstrong, relentless examining judge, who according to French law holds unassailable powers. Even in her first scene, it's clear that power has gone to her head.
A pompous though nervous chairman of a major corporation, Humeau (Francois Berleand), is unceremoniously arrested as he exits his Paris office building. He is thrown into prison without concern for his mighty position. The next day, the police drag him before Judge Jeanne Charmant (Huppert) without her even allowing him medicine for a skin allergy.
By the time this first interrogation has finished, our sympathies have switched. Humeau might be a rascal, but we feel sorry for anyone who comes up against the "piranha" judge. Those sympathies extend to her husband, Philippe (Robin Renucci), a medical lab technician who feels power in the household shifted long ago despite the fact he comes from wealth while she was practically the family maid before he married her.
A crafty businessman, Sibaud (Patrick Bruel), supplies Jeanne with leads to investigate charges of embezzlement and misuse of funds in this corporation in the mistaken belief he can control her. The same goes for people up the line of power from a powerful senator to the chief judge. She cuts everyone down to size and loves doing it. Even pairing Jeanne with a fellow female judge (Maryline Canto) doesn't work -- indeed it doubles the women's power.
Perhaps Chabrol isn't talking so much about power struggles as the voracious appetite for control and authority by rampaging feminists. Certainly men are portrayed here as losing the battle of the sexes. Badly. The only redemptive male is Jeanne's husband's nephew Felix (Thomas Chabrol, and yes, this is another of the director's sons). This easygoing bourgeois slacker makes a comic contrast to Jeanne's workaholism.
The movie sags in the middle. Even an acrimonious split between the judge and her husband doesn't raise the emotional stakes because love appears to have gone out of this relationship long ago. More puzzling, a drastic act by the distraught husband and a maneuver that removes the judge from the case lead to no epiphanies for Jeanne. She just doesn't understand that power can be an illusion. When the movie ends on a flat note, it causes one to realize how few high notes it ever achieved.
"A Comedy of Power" is somewhat typical of recent efforts by the great French director -- natural lighting, real locations, well-upholstered decors, veteran actors at home with reams of dialogue and a narrative that favors thought over action and behavior over emotion.
A COMEDY OF POWER
Aliceleo/France 2 Cinema/Ajoz Films/Integral Filmwith the participation of Canal Plus
Credits:
Director: Claude Chabrol
Screenwriters: Odile Barski, Claude Chabrol
Producer: Patrick Godeau
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Francoise Benoit-Fresco
Music: Mathieu Chabrol
Costumes: Mic Cheminal
Editor: Monique Fardoulis
Cast:
Jeanne Charmant: Isabelle Huppert
Humeau: Francois Berleand
Sibaud: Patrick Bruel
Philippe Charmant: Robin Renucci
Erika: Maryline Canto
Felix: Thomas Chabrol
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 111 minutes...
- 2/17/2006
- The Hollywood Reporter - Movie News
Screened at the Venice International Film Festival
Claude Chabrol creates a very spooky sense of incipient dread in The Bridesmaid with a nice, normal guy meeting a great-looking young woman who immediately falls in love with him. And the only thing she asks is that he kills someone.
Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell, the film could do well with audiences who have a taste for creepy films about murder in the suburbs.
Benoit Magimel stars as Philippe, the genial son in a close family led by hairdresser Christine (Aurore Clement) with two daughters who live pleasant, everyday lives. When one of them marries, Philippe is immediately drawn to one of the bridesmaids, a cousin of the groom.
Her name is Senta (Laura Smet) and the pair exchange glances during the ceremony and celebration but when he offers to drive her home in the rain, Senta declines. Instead, she walks in the rain to Philippe's house and is soon naked in his arms.
"You are my destiny and I am yours," she says. Senta tells him she's an actress but there's an hilarious clue to her potential fear factor when she reveals that John Malkovich once complained that she made him nervous.
Senta is desirable and pliant and Philippe tumbles into an affair that in Chabrol's capable hands becomes ever so slowly horrific. Edouardo Serra's deceptively bright cinematography and Matthieu Chabrol's sly score contribute to the masterfully established tension.
Claude Chabrol creates a very spooky sense of incipient dread in The Bridesmaid with a nice, normal guy meeting a great-looking young woman who immediately falls in love with him. And the only thing she asks is that he kills someone.
Based on the novel by Ruth Rendell, the film could do well with audiences who have a taste for creepy films about murder in the suburbs.
Benoit Magimel stars as Philippe, the genial son in a close family led by hairdresser Christine (Aurore Clement) with two daughters who live pleasant, everyday lives. When one of them marries, Philippe is immediately drawn to one of the bridesmaids, a cousin of the groom.
Her name is Senta (Laura Smet) and the pair exchange glances during the ceremony and celebration but when he offers to drive her home in the rain, Senta declines. Instead, she walks in the rain to Philippe's house and is soon naked in his arms.
"You are my destiny and I am yours," she says. Senta tells him she's an actress but there's an hilarious clue to her potential fear factor when she reveals that John Malkovich once complained that she made him nervous.
Senta is desirable and pliant and Philippe tumbles into an affair that in Chabrol's capable hands becomes ever so slowly horrific. Edouardo Serra's deceptively bright cinematography and Matthieu Chabrol's sly score contribute to the masterfully established tension.
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