La femme bourreau

I read online about this little-known French movie and wanted to watch it for some time. Spring 1968 in Paris : after a serial killer got executed, murders of prostitutes in Pigalle continue while the police starts investigating the case. The movie is not bad and has a nice cinematography provided by Gérard de Battista that really gives a noir feel to it. The soundtrack by Bernard Vitet is just excellent and the political context of that time is well reflected in the movie. However, the ending is quite predictable and the jump cuts did not really do the job in my opinion. I recommend this movie to hardcore film noir lovers like me and to French New Wave fans. If you don't like disturbing films, stay away from this one.

I don't think it gets much more indie and low-budget than this: original songs sung off-key, and played on instruments that are less than perfectly tuned; sound cues and samples that seem unusually distant and detached, presented with imbalanced sound design; handheld camerawork and black and white cinematography; original music that mostly sounds cobbled together from the soundtracks of unseen student films exploring horror tropes; direction that puts one or two characters at a time in filming locations that are isolated, empty, and/or clearly the homes and offices of those involved; and more. This is to say nothing of the extremely loose and almost lackadaisical construction of the narrative (even over so minute a runtime), highly repetitive voiceovers, considerable and somewhat gratuitous nudity, and still more.

None of this directly speaks to the quality of the film, mind you. Despite the nature of the project, some of these aspects are actually quite good. In the broad strokes the plot and scene writing are solid and compelling; there are good ideas here. The music comes off as oblique and experimental at no few points, not to mention discordant, and I rather like it; were they more carefully attended to, the songs would be kind of morbidly fun. Filmmaker Jean-Denis Bonan illustrates a fine, burgeoning sense of shot composition at points, and I actually do appreciate Gérard de Battista's cinematography, including no few shots that are particularly long. The editing is unexpectedly sharp, too, in my opinion, and those stunts and effects that are employed actually look pretty swell, as well as special makeup. The acting is generally unremarkable but passable (save for a couple especially glaring counterexamples). And in the very least, 'La femme bourreau' ("The lady executioner," also known as 'A woman kills) is suitably well done that I have to admire the gumption to churn out what is obviously low-grade fare produced on a budget. It's not great, but it's not bad.

On the other hand, it's not just that the plot is loose and unbothered, but there's not much to it in the first place as it comes together very piecemeal. The writing feels a little unfinished in no few regards, or at least underdeveloped, and some scenes or pieces of dialogue are unnecessarily drawn out. Despite the readily evident scarcity of resources available to the production it's ultimately done fairly well, and still, even at only 69 minutes, I think it's longer than it needs to be; the entire last ten minutes or so, for example, could have been significantly trimmed. Worse yet is how the story ultimately shows itself to exploit a trope for the killer - that is, a stereotype, and a deliberate misrepresentation - that has little to no basis in reality, but which nevertheless is cited by misogynists and bigots as fuel for harmful beliefs and fear-mongering persecution. No, this isn't the only feature to have ever done so by any means, but that doesn't make it any better.

What it comes to is a balancing act between the limitations of the production, the earnestness of the production, and the few distinct flaws, including above all meager writing and a distasteful reveal of the killer that hasn't aged well (as if it was ever appropriate in the first place). I think overall this is still sufficiently well done to earn a soft recommendation, though that comes with caveats, and it's hardly a must-see. Even at that I wonder if I'm not being too kind in my assessment. If nothing else, I see the strength of what 'La femme bourreau' has to offer, and to one degree or another it outweighs the criticisms. Don't go out of your way for it, and watch with a grain of salt or two and tempered expectations, but if you do happen to come across this it's not a bad way to spend one's time.

This is a movie that I got the chance to see thanks to Justin Cook. He sent me a screener copy of the Blu-ray disc that is out now. I read through the blurb and this movie sounded quite interesting so I wanted to check this out. This is a section of cinema from France that is a blind spot for me. Despite what little information I knew, I came into this one blind.

Synopsis: Paris, in the 1960s. A series of crimes trouble the public tranquility. Hélène Picard, a prostitute, is sentenced to death two years for several murders. Even after her execution, the murders continue on. This makes the police question if they had the correct person or is there a copycat?

Now for this movie, we jump in learning that Hélène Picard was the one from the synopsis that was executed for a series of murders. The man who performed the execution was Louis Guilbeau (Claude Merlin). We see him as he goes home and hear voice-over narration from Bernard Letrou. He tells us the history of Hélène.

The murders do not stop though. The movie does an interesting job of introduction the victims who are mostly prostitutes. Part of this is that they're considered to be lesser for their profession. They are also women. These include Cathy (Velly Beguard) and Brigitte (Catherine Deville). These killing continue to plunge the people into fear.

Louis seems to be at the center here. We see that he is into cross-dressing. There was childhood trauma with his mother which is why he does what he does, at least according to him. He is also seeing Solange Lebas (Solange Pradel). She is an inspector in charge of this investigation. Working with her is Suzy (Myriam Mézières), who gets entangled when she is used as bait.

Solange is faced with a difficult decision when she realizes that these murders are much closer to her than she originally realized.

Now that is where I'm going to leave my recap for this movie and introduction to the characters. What is interesting here is that this begins with an introduction from Virginie Sélavy. She also does an audio commentary along with Kat Ellinger that I watched for my second viewing of this movie ahead of this review. They bring up something interesting here. Jean-Denis Bonan was a filmmaker that had a troubled history. This is a crime movie that doesn't focus on the crimes as we just see the victim and hear a bit about their past as well as what happens to them. This also doesn't feature the investigation. There is sexuality here, but it doesn't lean far enough into being erotic. This is a hard movie to classify into a subgenre. It would be through this information classify it into Eurocult. I'm not versed enough there to fully back it up. This was also considered a lost movie before getting this treatment.

Then to move from my opening thoughts, we get to look into the psyche a bit here of Louis. I thought we might get more of a mystery, but we don't. I didn't realize my first watch that he executed Hélène and then goes home. There is a history of trauma as I said. He cross dresses, but I don't love the connotation they're implying here. This is deviant by 'normal' society. There's nothing wrong with this though. There is a correlation between this and the murders happening. Kat and Virginie were upset with the explanation at the end. They do have a gripe there as the mother is blamed for the final product. I'm a firm believer that it is a combination of nature and nurture to make a psychopath. The perfect storm happens here.

The other lead is more interesting to me. Solange is a woman inspector who is leading this investigation. I thought this was ahead of its time and the commentary confirmed this. Solange commands the respect of her co-workers and is doing what she can to save these prostitutes from being murdered. How things play out with her is a bit funny as well as being interesting.

The last bit that I'm going to go into here is the importance of the dates of each of the murders. This was discovered by me through the commentary as well. The murders all happen on important dates for different riots or social movements. If you don't know French history of the 1960s, then this will be missed. I'm included there. I love that there is this layer here that I wouldn't know, but it also takes away something by this information not being readily available to someone who doesn't know the history.

Where I want to go next then would be the acting. I thought that Merlin was good in his portrayal of Louis. He has an interesting angle to go that he dresses up as a woman. He makes it seem natural for him so that works. The best performance for me though is Pradel. I would have liked more of her investigation into things, but it is interesting that it is the simplest slip up that turns her on trail. That seems to be how it really goes according to true crime shows that I've watched. Other than that, I thought that Mézières, Jackie Raynal, Deville, Beguard and the rest of the victims were good. Letrou has a good voice as the narrator. We also get cameos from family members that are charming as well as Bonan and even filmmaker Jean Rollin as well.

All that is left then would be with the filmmaking. I think that the cinematography here is amateur, but that adds an element. They focused on filming this in derelict areas which seem to coincide with the psyche of our killer. That was interesting to me. There are angles used which is good. These are different and intriguing. This is just shot well. We don't much in the effects department, but it also isn't that type of movie. The bit of blood looks good. This is also shot in black and white so that helps to hide things. Other than that, I thought that the soundtrack worked for what was needed. We get these great songs that give us what is happening on the screen. They are just relayed in funny ways. I found that charming. The narration is also good as it gives information you would normally get from characters during the investigation. That was different. I also appreciated it.

In conclusion, this is an odd film. I liked it for that though. We are getting a movie that is hard to classify. It doesn't go erotic enough to fall in that genre, but we also don't get enough of the investigation or the crimes themselves to put it there. The best I can say is Eurocult. This is well-made though from the cinematography, the setting and the soundtrack. I think that the acting works for what they needed with the best performance from Pradel. This won't be for everyone. If you like a bit more arthouse cinema, especially from Europe, then I'd recommend giving this one a watch for sure.

My Rating: 7.5 out of 10.