In my desire to discover the work of Claude Chabrol, I watched The Unfaithful Wife. And I regret saying it was a disappointment.
Chabrol constructs a capable, but unmemorable suspense movie. He knows the language and structure of the genre, but the movie lacks that extra element that makes it special.
A loving husband suspects his wife is betraying him with another man. He hires a private detective to prove him right. Then he decides to confront the lover. There's no point describing the rest of the story, but then again there's nothing worth describing afterwards. It's a straightforward, banal plot without any innovation, interesting dialogue or great acting to rise it above mediocrity.
There is perhaps fifteen minutes worth of tension, suspense or originality in the movie. They occur when the husband meets the lover. He does it in a charming, friendly way. He insinuates himself into the lover's apartment with full honesty but pretending not to care about the affair. He earns the lover's trust. All the time the viewer is thinking what is going to happen next. It's genuinely thrilling, but that's it.
There's an attempt at ambiguity at the end of the movie, but rather than being something that challenges our ideas or values, it's just one of those dull ambiguous endings that desperate directors of thrillers end their unspectacular movies with, where we're left wondering whether the killer is or is not going to be caught. Seeing as how that's not really the point of the movie, and seeing how the viewer is never seduced into caring about the characters all, it's quite pointless.
Claude Chabrol is so praise - he's called the French Hitchcock; but people can be too generous in their compliments sometimes - that I'm hoping my next attempt at his movies will be better. But this was a poor introduction.
Chabrol constructs a capable, but unmemorable suspense movie. He knows the language and structure of the genre, but the movie lacks that extra element that makes it special.
A loving husband suspects his wife is betraying him with another man. He hires a private detective to prove him right. Then he decides to confront the lover. There's no point describing the rest of the story, but then again there's nothing worth describing afterwards. It's a straightforward, banal plot without any innovation, interesting dialogue or great acting to rise it above mediocrity.
There is perhaps fifteen minutes worth of tension, suspense or originality in the movie. They occur when the husband meets the lover. He does it in a charming, friendly way. He insinuates himself into the lover's apartment with full honesty but pretending not to care about the affair. He earns the lover's trust. All the time the viewer is thinking what is going to happen next. It's genuinely thrilling, but that's it.
There's an attempt at ambiguity at the end of the movie, but rather than being something that challenges our ideas or values, it's just one of those dull ambiguous endings that desperate directors of thrillers end their unspectacular movies with, where we're left wondering whether the killer is or is not going to be caught. Seeing as how that's not really the point of the movie, and seeing how the viewer is never seduced into caring about the characters all, it's quite pointless.
Claude Chabrol is so praise - he's called the French Hitchcock; but people can be too generous in their compliments sometimes - that I'm hoping my next attempt at his movies will be better. But this was a poor introduction.