La fleur du mal (2003)
(The Flower of Evil)
Country: FR
Technical: col 105m
Director: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Nathalie Baye, Benoît Magimel, Suzanne Flon, Bernard LeCoq, Mélanie Doutey, Thomas Chabrol
Synopsis:
The son of a convoluted haut bourgeois family returns to the nest from the US in the midst of his stepmother's mayoral electoral campaign; a double occasion for the exhumation of a number of family skeletons.
Review:
Not a little reminiscent of Merci pour le chocolat, and of course classic Chabrol territory. The film begins with a fine track around the scene of the crime, and then proceeds to show us how we got there, though not all particulars are the same. This is one of the pleasing signs of anything but a slackening of touch in the old master; another is the spare chamber music that punctuates the action, courtesy of Chabrol fils. The subtext, that the French upper classes are deliciously corrupt, is old hat, thanks not least to this director and the films of Luis Buñuel; there is also more than a hint of François Mauriac in this Aquitaine-set tale of inbred landowners. Perhaps, though, there is a little over-egging of the pudding by the end, with one revelation following another, so that it begins irresistibly to recall Ozon's Huit femmes.
(The Flower of Evil)
Country: FR
Technical: col 105m
Director: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Nathalie Baye, Benoît Magimel, Suzanne Flon, Bernard LeCoq, Mélanie Doutey, Thomas Chabrol
Synopsis:
The son of a convoluted haut bourgeois family returns to the nest from the US in the midst of his stepmother's mayoral electoral campaign; a double occasion for the exhumation of a number of family skeletons.
Review:
Not a little reminiscent of Merci pour le chocolat, and of course classic Chabrol territory. The film begins with a fine track around the scene of the crime, and then proceeds to show us how we got there, though not all particulars are the same. This is one of the pleasing signs of anything but a slackening of touch in the old master; another is the spare chamber music that punctuates the action, courtesy of Chabrol fils. The subtext, that the French upper classes are deliciously corrupt, is old hat, thanks not least to this director and the films of Luis Buñuel; there is also more than a hint of François Mauriac in this Aquitaine-set tale of inbred landowners. Perhaps, though, there is a little over-egging of the pudding by the end, with one revelation following another, so that it begins irresistibly to recall Ozon's Huit femmes.
(The Flower of Evil)
Country: FR
Technical: col 105m
Director: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Nathalie Baye, Benoît Magimel, Suzanne Flon, Bernard LeCoq, Mélanie Doutey, Thomas Chabrol
Synopsis:
The son of a convoluted haut bourgeois family returns to the nest from the US in the midst of his stepmother's mayoral electoral campaign; a double occasion for the exhumation of a number of family skeletons.
Review:
Not a little reminiscent of Merci pour le chocolat, and of course classic Chabrol territory. The film begins with a fine track around the scene of the crime, and then proceeds to show us how we got there, though not all particulars are the same. This is one of the pleasing signs of anything but a slackening of touch in the old master; another is the spare chamber music that punctuates the action, courtesy of Chabrol fils. The subtext, that the French upper classes are deliciously corrupt, is old hat, thanks not least to this director and the films of Luis Buñuel; there is also more than a hint of François Mauriac in this Aquitaine-set tale of inbred landowners. Perhaps, though, there is a little over-egging of the pudding by the end, with one revelation following another, so that it begins irresistibly to recall Ozon's Huit femmes.