La femme infidèle

'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.

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.

"La Femme Infidele", which was released in 1968, followed quickly on the heels of "Les Biches", (which, in a perhaps playfully arrogant way, is shown as playing in a cinema during the course of the film), and continued a glorious return to form for Chabrol after a too-long fallow period.

It was the first of a series of what could be regarded 'studies in adultery' starring his wife (and muse), Stephane Audran. In this one a loving husband suspects his wife of being unfaithful and, having had his suspicions confirmed by a private detective, determines to confront her lover.

Although he's often described as the French Hitchcock, Chabrol, while he has consistently proved that he has mastered the basic techniques of the suspense film genre, invariably has been at least as equally interested in the study,- indeed dissection, - of the mores and behaviour of the French bourgeoisie.

While this categorisation might suggest a tendency towards dry academic study, he has shown in his best features a masterful ability to employ a variety of techniques to present his case in a telling manner. In this instance he employs, variously, a combination of subtle character study,suspense film, Pinteresque drama, and some black comedy.

He is greatly assisted here by a clutch of exceptional performances: Audran and Maurice Ronet as the lovers, and, best of all, Michel Bouquet as the suspicious but loving husband.

(As an aside, and I'm not sure whether she served any function in the film other than mere decoration, but the husband's mini-skirted secretary appeared to me to have wandered onto the film from an adjacent French farce. But then,perhaps,it was just a case of Chabrol conforming to the norms of the day.)

Among the superbly-crafted high-points were the confrontation between lover and husband; the various domestic conversations between husband and wife where the nature of their relationship is carefully and beautifully delineated; the various conversations with the investigating policemen; and a masterly final scene (where even the briefest explanatory description would be too cruel for those who've yet to see the film).

Overall, however, what ultimately elevates the film to greatness is the way in which Chabrol presents his subjects as determined to maintain the domestic equilibrium, irrespective of, and almost oblivious to, temporary 'crises' and 'inconveniences'. And in the way in which, he, as director/puppetmaster, while at times apparently mocking, simultaneously persuades us to sympathise with his subjects

Quite possibly his finest film: but certainly quintessential Chabrol.

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.

THE UNFAITFUL WIFE (Claude Chabrol - France 1968).

Claude Chabrol's "La Femme infidèle" is an excellent thriller, or "A Psycho-sexual Study in Murder" as the film was advertised on certain posters, reflecting his cynical disgust against the petty bourgeoisie. Charles Desvallées (Michel Bouquet) becomes suspicious his wife Hélène (Stéphane Audran) is having an affair. Charles hires a private detective who comes up with the name of Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet) and then goes off to confront his wife's lover.

Bouquet and Audran pitch their roles superbly and with an excellent score, Chabrol's cold, cynical dissection of marriage and murder is just as good as anything Hitchcock ever made. Yet, the film has Chabrol's own distinctly detached style, employing different point of view shots, instantly making the viewer part of the couple's troublesome marriage as we uncomfortably watch Stéphane Audran inevitably on her way to be unmasked. Chabrol stages a long scene giving more than a little nod to Hitchcock's PSYCHO. Besides Bouquet who always gives a tongue-in-cheek performance, his charming honey-bunny assistant in his office had me laughing each time she made her appearance.

Remade in 2002 with Richard Gere and Diane Lane as UNFAITHFUL.

Camera Obscura --- 8/10