Masques

I have to hand it to Claude Chabrol. He certainly has an eye for casting his leading ladies. For 'Masques', here we have Anne Brochet in her first feature film. From the moment we first lay eyes on her, she comes over both mysterious and enigmatic. Chabrol cleverly does not allow us to see her eyes -- she is wearing sun glasses due to still convalescing from a past medical condition. When her eyes are finally revealed, we indeed see Chabrol's casting astuteness. Oh-La-La ... such wonderful peepers. Brochet is very reminiscent of Emmanuelle Béart here.

This is one of the more conventional mystery/thrillers from Chabrol. Essentially a detective story of Roland, who's sister has disappeared in mysterious circumstances. His investigations lead him to her last known whereabouts -- the country home of game show host Christian Legagneur. Roland poses as a journalist under the pretext of interviewing Legagneur for a book. Here he meets, and falls in love with, Legagneur's god daughter Catherine. Is it she who holds the key to the disappearance of Roland's sister? Watch the film to find out.

'Masques' is probably not one of Chabrol's finest but interesting none the less. Certainly worth a look for both Anne Brochet as the child like Catherine and Philippe Noiret's wonderfully over the top performance as the game show host. As in all Chabrol films, people are never quite what they seem. Unfortanately, the villain of the piece is revealed a tad too early in this one. To be fair tho, Chabrol does salvage the film in the final act.

Full of the usual fair of fine food .. fine wine .. and a few cigars smoked. Worth a look.

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Masks is a gothic mystery of antique origin, successfully updated for a world a century later. To breathe new life into a well-worn story takes style, inventiveness, and brio - all of which Chabrol, co-writer Odile Barski, and a well-chosen cast bring in spades. The traditional shadows and spandrels of the genre are discarded in favour of a uniquely saccharine creepiness.

Philippe Noiret fits his role as smarmy TV show host Christian Legagneur (literally "the winner") like a glove. His program - in which elderly romantics compete in dancing and singing - feels eerily plausible. We spend most of the film at his country estate, populated with familiars, where he has invited a young biographer to hear his story. This biographer, however, has a secret mission that only reveals itself gradually. The setup sounds implausible, but Legagneur is just egotistical enough to be seduced by the flattery of a biographer's attention, and just manipulative enough to welcome an extra puppet into his theatre, even if he suspects the ruse.

Robin Renucci, as the fake writer Roland Wolf, brings youthful brashness and self-assurance to the role, making him a worthy opponent in this quiet battle of wits. Other notables include Bernadette Lafont, gleefully hamming it up as the voluptuous tarotist-in-residence Patricia, and Anne Brochet as Catherine, Legagneur's ailing god-daughter.

It's tempting to think of Chabrol as a New Wave pioneer who drifted into less promising genre territory. But dig deeper, and you find a filmmaker with a remarkably acute grasp of the upper middle classes - particularly the collusive, self-perpetuating nature of class power. Legagneur is no rogue individualist. He gregariously surrounds himself with like-minded confederates who share in the spoils. To put it more simply: the rich don't rock the boat - they eat veal cutlets on the boat and sip fine wine.

Legagneur laughs easily, with his inner circle and at society. He is a law unto himself, creating a hermetically sealed, ideologically baroque world of his own. This is captured in a memorable image: he sleeps beneath an Arcadian tableau, recessed into ornate panelling - the physical manifestation of his dreams. We glimpse the structure he inhabits whether awake or asleep: a world entirely of his own invention and control. He is a dreamer wide awake. Or, to put it plainly: a powerful fantasist. Years before the world came to understand the true nature of TV host Jimmy Savile, Chabrol had already drawn the silhouette.

The 1980s were a relatively fallow period for Chabrol, but Masks - this opiated flower from an unmapped canyon of dreams - stands out.

This Claude Chabrol film is notable for being the occasion of the film debut of 21 year-old Anne Brochet. She does an absolutely brilliant job, but that was but a prelude to her magnificent performance in the later TOUS LES MATINS DU MONDE (ALL THE MORNINGS OF THE WORLD, 1991), where she was unforgettable as the daughter of Saint-Colombe, the viola da gamba composer. The word brochet means 'pike' in English, so that if she were English or American, she would be Anne Pike. I cannot resist pointing out that my mother's best friend at school was named Annie Pike. A pike is a very large fresh-water fish, for those who are unacquainted with such matters. I wonder how Anne Brochet would get on with the British actress Rosamund Pike. They are opposite types, but equally inspired. It seems to me that in an ideal world, all pikes should swim together as friends, but then a pike can be a ferocious fish which not only eats up all the small fish, but will fight great battles against rival pikes. However, back to the film. This film features a powerful tour de force performance by Philippe Noiret, but I do feel that he went slightly over the top and that Chabrol might have held him back just a bit. Nevertheless, as an egotistical and exhibitionist television game show presenter on French television, the character was meant to be well over the top, so maybe it was OK to emote with such force. The film is about a writer (played excellently by Robin Renucci, who specialises in bemused and quizzical looks) who pretends to write a biography of Noiret, whereas he is really interested in investigating the disappearance of his sister Nathalie, as she had been living in Noiret's large house and then vanished suddenly. The story is very hackneyed in that something like it has been made into a film so many times, especially in Britain, and the basic tale goes back to the Victorian 'Uncle Silas'. Noiret is the guardian of pale, innocent and waiflike Brochet, her parents having died in a car crash when she was 5. (Noiret may even have caused that.) She is very rich, or was, before he systematically began stealing all her money. Soon she will 'come into her majority', i.e. be 21, so things are reaching a climax and he is feeding her poison slowly. She is thus the imprisoned victim who is being killed off by her ruthless guardian. Brochet had been close to Nathalie. Renucci and she become close, and Renucci discovers what the dastardly Noiret is really up to and the struggle is on to save Brochet from being murdered, and Renucci from being killed as well. Will evil win? Trust Claude Chabrol to know.

precise option for cast. not original policier. but the unique art of characters definition. and a nice story. the vulnerability of Anne Brochet, new version of Audrey Hepburn, the charm of Philippe Niret, the flavor of mysteries old tales are pieces of a very interesting mechanism. nothing surprising, nothing complicated, only visual crime novel created in the limits of classic rules. image of each character - little jewel in Chabrol style, delicate intrigue and the precious details are elements of fine clock. and inspired ingredient for atmosphere. an old fashion movie and little more. maybe, a delight or just provocation for public.that is all.

In Paris, the host of a TV show for elderly people, Christian Legagneur (Philippe Noiret), is famous for being a generous man. He hires the journalist Roland Wolf (Robin Renucci) to write his biography and invites him to spend three days with him at his countryside house. Legagneur travels with Wolf by car with his mute driver Max (Pierre-François Dumeniaud). While having lunch in the house, Wolf is introduced to Legagneur's masseuse Patricia (Bernadette Lafont); to the wine expert Manu (Roger Dumas); and to the housekeeper Colette (Monique Chaumette). Then his young granddaughter, Catherine (Anne Brochet), who is ill, arrives wearing sunglasses. Wolf seems to be interested in a woman, Madeleine Chevalier, fishing with the residents. Soon Wolf snoops around and finds dark secrets about Legagneur. Further, he falls in love with Catherine and advises her that she is in danger.

"Masques", a.k.a. "Masks" (1987), is a great thriller by Claude Chabrol with an original story of a brother looking for the whereabouts of his missing sister. Philippe Noiret steals the show in the role of a scum that likes money and poses as a charitable man. The delicate Anne Brochet is perfect in her debut in the role of a vulnerable and needy young woman. The other names on the cast have also magnificent performances. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Máscaras" ("Masks")