Strictly average movie

From my favorite movies..

Excellent, a Must See

I cannot think of one single thing that I would change about this film. The acting is incomparable, the directing deft, and the writing poignantly brilliant.

I've seen tons of Chabrol movies ,about 95% of his films and all I can see is that the proportion of duds increases in the years.Even directors deserve retirement! The bourgeoisie dolce vita has been told told and TOLD by CC!Enough!I'm fed up!It's all the more infuriating as earlier works had bite and guts going for them ("que la bete meure" "la rupture" "la femme infidèle" )when it wasn't pure genius ("le boucher").We feel now,and it's the last straw,a discreet charm of the bourgeoisie,he treats his bourgeois indulgently.The actors go from excellent(veteran Suzanne Flon ,in a part not worthy of herself) to passable (Baye is good enough in her " visiting the Poor" scenes,a pale reflection of his predecessor Claude Autant-Lara' s "Douce" (1942))to dismal (Bernard LeCoq,generally relegated to mediocre comedies,Benoit Magimel and his girlfriend -who might not or might be his cousin-) Sign of the times:the gastronomy sequence which you can find in everything CC did ,for the first time is a fiasco:the oysters ,says bourgeois Magimel,are not what they used to be.If it were only the oysters....

I gather from this movie that the French are a great deal touchier about their family histories than we are here in the US. They're easy to ridicule on this point, and the writers seem to be having great fun doing it.I also gather that French politicians are practically identical to their American counterparts: witness the doddering soon-to-be-ex-mayor, who appears not to have uttered a sincere word in his entire life, beaming and exclaiming "Wonderful people!" on learning that the person whose hand he's shaking has just returned from the US. (The "anti-Americanism" that others have complained about in this movie is mostly on that level. Catch it if you can.)For me, the movie weakens when it tries to be serious about the various murders and incestuous relationships in the family's past. The young half-siblings who fall into bed together save those parts from sinking the movie altogether. Definitely worth a rental or two.

This film, which follows on in the same vein as "Merci Pour Le Chocolat", has recently been issued on DVD in France in the "Claude Chabrol Collection". The DVD ( region 2 ) as well as a fair number of boni has English subtitles as an option ( something unfortunately lacking on most of the DVD's of French Films edited in France ). This means that anglo-saxons who perchance like Chabrol can buy the DVD from French Websites and appreciate the film even if they don't master the French language.Apart from this practical piece of information with regards to the film itself, the cast comprises a set of well-known French actors, with the exception of the young 'uns ( Benoît Magimel and the Delicious looking Mélanie DOutey who is doubtless the daughter of Alain Doutey, and older French actor whom I know and like). Bernard Le Coq is a common figure in French TV films and is recognisable due to his heavy breathing thru the nose ( as opposed to the throat !!! ). Suzanne Flon is a very elegant lady, and I do have a soft spot for Nathalie Baye (ex wifey of Johnny Halliday) tho' in this film she doesn't look her best. Nice actors, good picture quality and set in the Bordeaux area of South-Western France with forays out to a house near the Sand Dunes of Pyla on the coast. The film is basically about the skeletons in the cupboard of this upper-class recomposed family with sempiternal references to the "Régime de Vichy". All that's getting to be old hat now, it's over 60 years since the events in question but there seems to be a current fad for digging up all this past, probably induced by the trial a few years back of one Maurice Papon, prefect in the same area who had sth to do with the deportation of Jews.Nathalie Baye is running in the local council elections but someone isn't too happy about that and an anonymous tract turns up early on in the film condemning the family and their past. This doesn't stop Baye from pursuing her campaigning. We learn later on who the author of the tract was ( could have guessed it fairly early on with a little mental exercise ), there's also a murder, limited sex between the young 'uns and we also learn about the skeleton in the cupboard of Tante Line played by Suzanne FLon. The film is watchable, but don't expect the good old Hitchcock-style suspense, it just isn't there and the ending is as bland as can be. I wasn't bored because I liked the actors and the sets, but the scenario wasn't much cop to be honest. I do like our friend Claude Chabrol's "bouille" and he has done some good films in the past ( cf Le Boucher ) but perhaps here age is taking its toll !! I found this film to be better than Merci Pour Le Chocolat which really was painful to watch but some of the dialogues are rather stilted and theatrical. Probably Nathalie Baye and Suzanne Flon come off best.The other annoying thing about the film is the primal, stupid and typically to be expected French anti-americanism which appears at time throughout the film. Magimel has just spent 4 yrs in Chicago and there is some scorn poured on American values and also American cuisine. This is pointless and stupid but was presumably included to satisfy French audiences who see it today as the "in" thing to be anti-American. However, these attitudes do not dominate the film which is more a satire of French "bourgeois" ( I think the word's a bit outdated today ) society !So really a film to be watched "à ses propres risques et périls" ( at your own risk !!) and certainly nothing to write home about !

It is easy to see the hand of Claude Chabrol in this movie. This is both a good thing and a bad thing. It is good when the story is taught and lean and the nature of evil in the human soul is explored. It is bad when the music gets so heavy handed. The rim shot effects that I loved in Le Boucher are annoying in this one.On the other hand Chabrol teases us wickedly. When it is over we aren't sure who is related to who, or more precisely how they may be related. Wicked man.A bit of a guilty pleasure perhaps. It is too bad that there has yet to be a director to step up and take Chabrol's place. I loved the young people and as an American the takes on American tastes were precious.