L'amico di famiglia

Claude Chabrol started as part of the nouvelle vague,as contemporary of Truffaut and -yuk!- Godard ,but his roots are in the old cinema,that of Clouzot and Duvivier.That's why his best movies hold up very well today.

A first golden era included such works as "à double tour" "le beau Serge" and "les cousins".Then came a period of barren inspiration which ended with "les biches" (1967) with which Chabrol entered his most fruitful period the 1967-1973 era:at least five of the works of this time are first-rate works :"la femme infidel" (1968;dubious American remake);"the beast must die" (1969) ;"the butcher" (1969) his towering achievement;"la rupture"(1970) his most underrated ;"juste avant la nuit" (1971) and finally "les noces rouges" which seems today as the last hurrah,a farewell to a golden era.

Unlike the four other films I mention "les noces rouges" is based on a true story which was widely talked about in France of the early seventies.But ,true or not,Chabrol's touch is strong and he makes the story a chabrolesque plot to the core.The bourgeois whom Chabrol depicted in "la femme infidel" or "la rupture" ,and who was played by Michel Bouquet has turned into a caricature.Enter Claude Piéplu,and with his high-pitched voice,he almost overshadows the excellent Stephane Audran and Michel Piccoli.An impotent self-satisfied mean bourgeois with political ambitions ,he accepts his wife's(Audran) affair with his deputy mayor(Piccoli) ,more,it's fine with him because it will be useful for his shady business.The scene when he tells the lovers so is incredible;lines such as "I want everybody to be happy around me!" he delivers to a stunned Piccoli and a bewildered Audran give goose pimples.

You will notice the omnipresence of water:in "que la Bete meure" and "le boucher" ,it symbolized a return from hell,not necessarily a happy end but a world with some peace of mind.In "les noces rouges" it appears during the love scenes (played by the two actors with more gusto than usual :never in a Chabrol movie the carnal act had been -and will be-so much to the fore)as a symbol of innocence (after all, the two people have no sex with their legal partners)in the sin.But it's the heroine's daughter ,called Helene ,who epitomizes innocence and some kind of deus ex machina.

What's more puzzling is that Stephane Audran's characters were all called Hélène in the four other movies I mention:in "la femme infidel' Helene had a lover but with some excuse :her husband appeared like a washout sexually;in "le boucher" she was a brave schoolteacher ,purity flesh on the bone;in "la rupture" her character had to fight against a hostile bourgeois world .In "les noces rouges" Audran ,called Lucienne,is on the other side of the mirror:she really becomes a criminal,almost in a dream .When her daughter,Hélène,who took the place she occupied in former movies asks her "I want you to be happy,mom,please tell me the truth" Audran does not seem to realize all that means.And when she does,it will be too late.

Les noces rouges" is also a movie which depicts political life circa 1970 in a small town where gossips run rampant.And as usual,Chabrol is marvelous when it comes to painting vignettes of ordinary life -see the scene in the library-

It would take Chabrol five years to muster this sort of command ("Violette Nozieres" (1978)),and although he has occasionally made great works ("l'enfer" " la cérémonie" ),he will be remembered in fifty years or so for those gems of the late sixties/early seventies era."Les noces rouges" is a must.

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.

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.

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.

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.