TL:DR Yes, I know I said I wouldn't watch any more Chabrol, but I only watched eight minutes of this before giving up. There, that's saved you eight minutes of your life, at least. God knows, I tried.
Silly music, where it's not required, mis-scored over dialogue - to some people this seems to equate to cinematic depth, or avant-gardeness. Sorry, it's ineptitude. The male lead is prettier than the female lead, so why should we care about her? Neither has any personality. A voiceover to explain everything because Chabrol hasn't the faintest idea how to depict it. Chabrol's wife as the female lead cannot act. The other male lead keeps looking at the camera. No suspense, just coincidence after coincidence. Yes folks, it's Chabrol again.
I'll admit that Chabrol knew how to point a camera at interiors and exteriors and say, 'Action!' and 'Cut!'. People, he wasn't so good at. Suspense he had no clue. What he never worked out was how to show plot points without a character explaining it, or how to get his wife to act, or how to spot when an actor glanced at the camera. I guess the French state cinema subsidy system was just too generous in those days; any fool with access to an Arriflex could get in on it.
Every time I try to watch a Chabrol feature I can't see past the same fundamental faults. Now there would be an avant garde movie.
Silly music, where it's not required, mis-scored over dialogue - to some people this seems to equate to cinematic depth, or avant-gardeness. Sorry, it's ineptitude. The male lead is prettier than the female lead, so why should we care about her? Neither has any personality. A voiceover to explain everything because Chabrol hasn't the faintest idea how to depict it. Chabrol's wife as the female lead cannot act. The other male lead keeps looking at the camera. No suspense, just coincidence after coincidence. Yes folks, it's Chabrol again.
I'll admit that Chabrol knew how to point a camera at interiors and exteriors and say, 'Action!' and 'Cut!'. People, he wasn't so good at. Suspense he had no clue. What he never worked out was how to show plot points without a character explaining it, or how to get his wife to act, or how to spot when an actor glanced at the camera. I guess the French state cinema subsidy system was just too generous in those days; any fool with access to an Arriflex could get in on it.
Every time I try to watch a Chabrol feature I can't see past the same fundamental faults. Now there would be an avant garde movie.