Claude Chabrol's Blutige Hochzeit

Les noces rouges is, first, just a correct film. You recognize Claude Chabrol in each scene , and the performances of Stephane Audran, Claude Pieplu , Michel Piccoli is one of fundamental marks. It is not the film to convince - the love affair between Lucinne and Pierre is only conventional, the effort of Pieplu reminds the steps of many politicians,Eliana de Santis gives her the best , in minimalism frame, reminding the rafinated cruelty of childhood, Clotilde Joao seems perfect in the shadow of the character of Clotilde Maury.Like many films of Chabrol, Red Wedding gives not exactly a story but the precious lavor of melancholy.

I believe this film is based on a real double murder by Bernard Coustie in 1970, and follows that closely until the final scenes. I was shocked by the Benny Hill quality of the love scenes which undermines the early scenes. The acting as a whole has a semi-comic feel and the film is short and feels perfunctory - if it wasn't Chabrol would we even remember it? However, the score is terrific, and as a time-capsule of small town France it is entertaining.

Under the surface of middle class boredom and entrapment, love for the forbidden and unattainable drives two respectable, kind people to murder. It isn't realistic, yet feels real, as does the daughter's unconscious urge to destroy her beloved mother. The murder victims are at once pitiable and richly deserve their ends. The performances are great all round.

This film has a persistently artificial feel to it that at times serves it well and at times is a hindrance - it sometimes serves to highlight the hypocrisy and corruption of the milieu and give the central characters a decadent air, but at times it interferes with character development, as it interferes with our understanding of the characters. The plot itself is rather conventional but is essentially an excuse to dissect a certain milieu. The most interesting character is in my opinion very underrated: the mayor's stepdaughter, who is clearly intelligent, somewhat sombre but decidedly not bookish. She is the sole character that does not seem motivated by purely selfish, fairly conventional motives (money, political ambition, boredom, sexual desire, etc), making her motivations harder to fathom. She is the only character with any real mystery about her; it's hinted she has some kind of fascination with death, and she makes a surprising comment related to the role of women, all of which add to her ambiguity as a character.

By no means one of Chabrol's finest this is nevertheless most watchable and the most agreeable and sinister soundtrack always suggests this may become something much grander. As it is it is a fairly predictable tale with the odd twist but leaves the two leads/lovers ending up looking rather stupid. I'm sure Mr Chabrol, like his mentor, Hitchcock found himself a little less than at ease with the ladies. Hence his wife Stephane Audran and Michel Piccoli, two great actors, but who it has to be said, are both so seemingly lacking in passion, are asked to convince that they would gladly rush to a riverbank or rooms within a stately home to make wild, passionate love. I don't think so! Claude Pieplu is great fun as the at first pompous and later calculating cuckold husband and although we are assured he is not 'up to the job' he seems to have far more fire in him than the other two. Certainly worth watching this is a curious example of the director's work and just goes to show that, again like Hitchcock, even his lesser films are at least interesting, if a little awkward.