"La Femme Infidele" (aka "The Unfaithful Wife") is a psychological thriller that charts the course of events that follow after the passion is lost from an otherwise happy eleven-year-old marriage. Suspicion, betrayal and jealousy create a cocktail of emotions which eventually become totally uncontrollable and lead to a violent incident that changes the couple's lives forever. The fact that their feelings are constrained within certain parameters (which are imposed on them by their middle-class sensibilities), creates the powerful tension which is such a strong and consistent feature of this movie.
Charles Desvallees (Michel Bouquet) is a wealthy businessman who lives in a beautiful château near Versailles with his wife Helene (Stephane Audran) and their son Michel (Stephane Di Napoli). Outwardly, they appear to be a happy family but some of Helene's actions lead Charles to suspect that she may be having an affair and so he employs a private detective to investigate. After the detective reports that Helene is involved with a divorced writer called Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet), Charles decides to visit his wife's lover at his apartment. The two men initially converse in a very calm and friendly manner but as the evidence of his wife's infidelity becomes increasingly vivid, Charles' emotions overwhelm him and he strikes Pegala with a heavy ornament and kills him.
Following the incident at Pegala's apartment, Charles and Helene maintain their appearance of normality but there's also some evidence that they're beginning to unravel. The developments that follow unfold in a style which is both surprising and fascinating, not least because of what they reaffirm about the couple's relationship.
One of the pleasures of watching this movie is seeing the way in which so much of what's going on happens without ever being spoken about. Helene never actually mentions her frustration, her adultery or the fact that she finds evidence of Charles' crime and Charles never talks about his suspicions, his crime or the depth of the pain that he obviously experiences as a result of being betrayed by his wife. Similarly, all the emotional turmoil is routinely masked by an air of tranquillity because maintaining a veneer of normality is so important to people of their social standing.
In a film that's as subtle and cerebral as "La Femme Infidele" the demands on the actors are considerable and the fact that Bouquet and Audran convey so much so successfully without being able to talk about their thoughts and feelings emphasises just how talented they are. A real high point comes in a scene close to the end where Stephane Audran's subtle smile very economically speaks volumes about what she's thinking and feeling at that time. This is just one example of the top class acting that contributes so much to the success of this movie which really needs to be seen more than once in order to fully appreciate it.
Charles Desvallees (Michel Bouquet) is a wealthy businessman who lives in a beautiful château near Versailles with his wife Helene (Stephane Audran) and their son Michel (Stephane Di Napoli). Outwardly, they appear to be a happy family but some of Helene's actions lead Charles to suspect that she may be having an affair and so he employs a private detective to investigate. After the detective reports that Helene is involved with a divorced writer called Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet), Charles decides to visit his wife's lover at his apartment. The two men initially converse in a very calm and friendly manner but as the evidence of his wife's infidelity becomes increasingly vivid, Charles' emotions overwhelm him and he strikes Pegala with a heavy ornament and kills him.
Following the incident at Pegala's apartment, Charles and Helene maintain their appearance of normality but there's also some evidence that they're beginning to unravel. The developments that follow unfold in a style which is both surprising and fascinating, not least because of what they reaffirm about the couple's relationship.
One of the pleasures of watching this movie is seeing the way in which so much of what's going on happens without ever being spoken about. Helene never actually mentions her frustration, her adultery or the fact that she finds evidence of Charles' crime and Charles never talks about his suspicions, his crime or the depth of the pain that he obviously experiences as a result of being betrayed by his wife. Similarly, all the emotional turmoil is routinely masked by an air of tranquillity because maintaining a veneer of normality is so important to people of their social standing.
In a film that's as subtle and cerebral as "La Femme Infidele" the demands on the actors are considerable and the fact that Bouquet and Audran convey so much so successfully without being able to talk about their thoughts and feelings emphasises just how talented they are. A real high point comes in a scene close to the end where Stephane Audran's subtle smile very economically speaks volumes about what she's thinking and feeling at that time. This is just one example of the top class acting that contributes so much to the success of this movie which really needs to be seen more than once in order to fully appreciate it.