La femme infidèle

Having located the man who his wife is having an affair with through a private investigator, a well-to-do Frenchmen pays the man an amicable visit in this slow burn thriller from Claude Chabrol. While the film ends on a strong note with a nicely ambiguous final shot, an emphasis on 'slow' really is required as the entire first half-hour moves sluggishly along until the point when husband and lover finally meet. The precious few minutes that the pair share together are unquestionably the strongest in the film with lots of tension and uncertainty in the air as the husband wins the lover's confidence by pretending that he has an open marriage. This intensity peaks as he listens to the lover talk about how gentle and loving his wife is, enlightening him to a side of his wife that he clearly has not seen for a while. The immediate aftermath of their meeting together is pretty riveting too, but following that the film again loses tension and slows down in its final third, never again achieving the excellence of the husband-lover meeting scene. The film almost feels a bit long in a way, but then on the same account, not quite enough time is dedicated to fleshing out whether love, lust or otherwise existed between the two adulterers. Michel Bouquet's towering lead performance goes a long way to keep the film afloat though. Same goes for Chabrol's fluid camera movements, Pierre Jansen's atmospheric score and the rather novel premise of husband and lover meeting on amicable terms. It is such a great idea that is no surprise to learn that the film has been remade no less than three times to date.

They often say that if someone wanted to see a French bourgeois circa 1970,watching Michel Bouquet in a Claude Chabrol movie was enough!Three times he portrayed this kind of character (this movie,"la rupture" and "juste avant la nuit").Three times he teamed up with the director's ex-wife ,the luminous Stephane Audran(twice as her husband ,once as.. her father-in -law )and together they worked wonders -contemporary Chabrol movies suffer from the dearth of great actors -in "merci pour le chocolat ,how could Jacques Dutronc equal the peerless Bouquet?

Unlike "les biches" which has not worn well because of its subject (bisexual women),once daring,now trite,"la femme infidèle" deals with an eternal story:the love triangle ,and it completely renews it:take the first thirty minutes:it is primarily a depiction of the bourgeois dolce vita: the desirable mansion,the servants ,the good little boy who makes a clean sweep of all the prizes and snubs the telly ,the chic nightclubbing....And when the tragic events occur ,it seems that they accidentally happen:who knows if ,Had Bouquet not found the lighter...Hitchcock's lovers will notice the nod to "psycho" when Bouquet gets rid of the body.

Bouquet and Audran talk to each other but they do not really communicate:here lies Chabrol's talent;when at the end ,they try to establish a true relation,they do not use words anymore:looks,gestures, speak louder than words.The jig-saw puzzle is also a good dramatic element and reflects the couple's confusion.As for the last sequence it's not at all what the audience is expecting:no cries or despair ,but a thoroughly silent scene ,where Chabrol enhances the beauty of the nature which surrounds his characters.Chabrol's thrillers of this golden era,although their endings are full of sound and fury,achieve the feat of leaving the viewer with a feeling of quietness:Michel Duchaussoy (here a cop) sailing away in "que la bête meure" ; Audran ,looking at the still waters of a pond in the dark night in "le boucher" or enjoying a balloon release in "la rupture" ;the couple Audran/Bouquet ,turning off the light for what may be his last night in "juste avant la nuit".

As for this abstract communication,Chabrol would take it to its absolute perfection with "le boucher" ,his towering achievement:besides ,like in "la femme infidèle" ,a lighter (coincidence?) plays a prominent part.

Audran's character is called Hélène.This first name would remain for three more movies (le boucher,la rupture,juste avant la nuit).And Chabrol WOULD NEVER FORGET gastronomy:here ,he gives us a piece of advice about crepe flambé.

Remake with Richard Gere,Diane Lane and Vincent Perez taking on Bouquet's Audran's and Maurice Ronet's parts.

Claude Chabrol is sometimes known as 'The French Hitchcock', and while the two didn't exactly make the same type of thriller; it's easy to see where the comparisons come from, and both of these great directors are masters of their crafts! This is only the third Chabrol film I've seen, but once again I'm extremely impressed and looking forward to seeing more! Though I have limited experience of his films, Chabrol's thrillers to me are more brooding and personal than Hitchcock's; and while they lack the brazen thriller element that made most of Hitchcock's oeuvre so good to watch, it's made up for in panache and intrigue! The Unfaithful Wife puts its focus on an upper class French family in a big mansion somewhere just outside of a big city. We follow them for a short while until it becomes obvious to the husband that his wife's constant trips into town are a clue that she is having an affair. The husband then decides to hire a private detective to investigate his wife, and after having his fears concerned; the husband turns up at the lover's house with murder in mind...

The film appears to be so relaxed that at times you may wonder whether you are actually watching a thriller. But that is what makes this film so effective; Chabrol often lets his film settle, but there is always tension bubbling beneath the surface and the film is always intriguing, even when there is little going on. I won't spend too long talking about the acting and production values as obviously both are thoroughly professional and give the film infinite amounts of credibility. Most of the action focuses on the couple inside their big house and this benefits the film greatly as we soon get to know the characters. The central scene is clearly the murder sequence, although again Chabrol focuses on the build up rather than the actual pay off and the murder is as cold and brutal as it was obviously intended to be. The Unfaithful Wife is clearly a lesson in how suspense cinema should be; even more subtle than Hitchcock, this film manages to be constantly fascinating in spite of the fact that not a great deal transpires over the course of the film, and once again it's another great film on Chabrol's resume!

'The Unfaithful Wife' is really about a faithful husband, who will kill to save his marriage. This kind of fidelity is a chilling exercise of power - the film's many point-of-view shots are mostly his - with adultery a rebellion, a bid for freedom that must be crushed. It's not enough that Charles uncovers his wife's lover, he must sit on the bed they make love on, drink the same drink...

Chabrol's most perfect film, where character inertia is expressed in blatant artifice, both in the home and in 'nature'; where a materialist filming of materialists conceals an austere spirituality, embodied in those Fateful policemen. Like his namesake Bovary, Charles sleeps when his exquisitely beautiful wife offers herself to him. He deserves what he gets.

"La Femme Infidele" is arguably Claude Chabrol's finest film and certainly one of the masterpieces of sixties French cinema. The adulterous wife is, yes you've guessed it, Stephane Audran and Michel Bouquet is the cuckolded husband who decides to confront his wife's lover, Maurice Ronet, with fatal results. Perhaps the gentle art of murder has never been as gentle or as artful as here. I don't think I've ever seen killers, victims or those caught in-between behave in such a civilized manner. The performances are brilliant, the script a constant delight and Chabrol's direction is pitch-perfect. Not to be missed.