La maison sous les arbres

Of all the misguided choices Faye Dunaway made in her film career after co-starring in the 1967 hit "Bonnie and Clyde", this French-Italian co-production from director René Clément may be the most perplexing. An adaptation of Arthur Cavanaugh's novel "The Children Are Gone", this kidnapping drama set in Paris looks mournfully chic in gauzy autumnal colors but rarely comes together. Bickering American couple from Laurel Canyon--now apartment-dwellers in Paris for the past two years while the husband writes a book--are thrown into turmoil when their two kids disappear while on an outing in the wife's care. Dunaway is supposed to be something of a dotty, unreliable flibbertigibbet, a child-woman acting out her whims who needs psychiatric help. It's a faintly ridiculous role, too much and yet not enough for any actress to make sense out of. The villains (who are strong-arming the husband into some nefarious doings) are ill-defined nasties who arrive on the scene to portentous music on the soundtrack (in the old days, the man would have had a mustache to twirl at one end). Released under a different title in just about every country it played--including France, where it was shown as "La maison sous les arbres" ("The House Under the Trees")--it's a film that goes nowhere...and takes its time going nowhere. *1/2 from ****

Well this is an odd movie. Frank Langella and Faye Dunaway are names of no small renown, and given the sort of roles they're known for, it's hard to imagine them in pictures of any lesser quality. The premise of 'The deadly trap,' and the story as it unfolds, suggests a mildly disjointed narrative and uncertain truths as events unfold largely through Jill's perspective - a psychological thriller, to one extent or another. These are all positive indicators. However, it must be said that a drama attempting the angle that this does rather requires subtlety to bear fruit - and sadly, that is simply not the case here. The film is rendered with direly indelicate hands - blunt and direct, so bereft of tact as to come across as somewhat senselessly melodramatic. Frankly, this bears the air of a made-for-TV movie of the most gauche variety - and if that's not an unseemly portent, I don't know what is.

I claim no familiarity with the source material. I'm not entirely sure if the novel is more of an issue here, or the adapted screenplay, or René Clément's direction, but in almost every way there's a brutish inelegance present that severely dampens what enjoyment there is to be had. Sequencing and otherwise editing is curt, rough, and has the appearance of disorder. So it is as well for brusque dialogue, characters that don't seem fully developed, pointedly inelegant scene writing, and a plot that for all of the astounding heavy-handedness feels very forced. I would like to think that the feature was crafted so meticulously that every seeming fault was a conscious decision to echo and emphasize Jill's fractured mindset. Yet so much about 'The deadly trap' feels coarse and unpolished such that I have difficulty believing the same individuals that so crudely built the structure could have also purposefully filled it with more underhandedly refined detail. Those flaws come across, after all, as simply just flaws.

Langella and Dunaway have definitely proven themselves elsewhere, so I distinctly believe the writing and direction can be held responsible for coercing them and their fellow cast members into performances that are sorely lacking of subtlety or finesse. The very orchestration of every scene is marked with a pained sense of artifice on account of all the blemishes. Even the antagonists are left unnamed and ill-defined, a shadow of a shadow - a boogeyman of unseen power and influence. There are, most assuredly, some good ideas here, and for that I quite want to like this more than I do. Yet so poorly has the production been managed that the picture fails to have any impact, any real emotional heft or expected thrills. It's just unconvincing. It's unfortunate - this could have been good. I think it was rather close to being good. But ''The deadly trap' is middling as it presents, and teeters into a display of ham-handedness.

Alas. There are worse movies you could watch, by all means. Maybe viewers who are especial fans of someone in the cast will find this suitable enough - and generally speaking, everyone has their own opinion. But I regret to say I think this is too much of a mess to broadly recommend, and though it's not all bad, there's just no reason to go out of your way for it.

It should be said from the outset that the title Death Scream is not really very appropriate in describing this film. It's a much more low-key thriller than that pulpy title suggests. It was directed by the French film-maker René Clément, who had made a name for himself with Purple Noon (1960). It seems that the success with that film – the first screen version of Patricia Highsmith's character Ripley – led him to be called the French Hitchcock and resulted in him making a series of thrillers from then up until his final film in 1975. It seems the critics weren't very kind about his latter films, an opinion I disagree with. His final film Wanted: Babysitter (1975) is a very under-rated and effective film, while Death Scream is another that can hardly be described as terrible either. In fairness, it's the least successful Clément film I have seen but it still has something to offer.

It's an English language French movie starring Faye Dunaway and Frank Langella. They play an American married couple living in Paris. They are in the midst of martial problems; he is highly secretive, while she is going through a nervous breakdown. To complicate matters, Langella is an industrial spy who retires from his job to the annoyance of his paymasters. Meanwhile, Dunaway's fragile psychological temperament leads to various problems, culminating with the couple's children mysteriously disappearing while out with her in the city. All the time in the background, there is talk of an enigmatic group called 'the organisation' who threatens the family.

It's not the most dynamic of thrillers in truth and it is a little slow-paced. It could also have ramped up the suspense a bit as well. But Dunaway and Langella are good actors and the Parisian setting does offer an attractive backdrop to events. The story has just enough intrigue to keep the viewer engaged and it ultimately amounts to a good enough film, if a relatively minor one.

From 1959 onwards (and with the success of "purple noon" (Ripley's first version),Clement wanted to become the French Hitchcock.He followed the rules quite well with the follow-up "les félins" then everything went wrong.After casting Jane Fonda ("les félins") he hired American stars for every "thriller" he made:Bronson,Ryan,Vaughn and here Dunaway.Why American stars by the way?They were all dubbed (with the exception of Fonda)for everybody cannot be Jodie Foster for that matter.

"La maison sous les arbres" is a would be suspenseful movie with heavy pretensions:a big set-up,where poor Dunaway is caught like a fly in a cobweb :her children are kidnapped and "they "keep them in... (well,check the title;it means "the house under the trees") No cigar ,and not even close.

Arty, moody, stylized, slow thriller is also a love letter to Faye Dunaway's extraordinary, sensuous face. Has a similar vibe to the later "Don't Look Now" (just substitute Paris for Venice). Well-made, but it does require patience, and the story does not really receive full closure. **1/2 out of 4.