Claude Chabrol worked a lot for TV in the seventies and the eighties:after his offbeat " Histoires Insolites" ,he made the best version of Fantomas (beating Feuillade's silent films hands down)I'd ever seen.)
"The bench of desolation" is part of a miniseries based on Henry James' short stories ,filmed by various directors.It's a medium length feature. (52 minutes)
In "Bench" ,Claude Chabrol meets again Michel Duchaussoy he already directed in his masterful " Que La Bête Meure" An accomplished thespian ,Duchaussoy gives a restrained performance (in the last shot,he looks like a little boy)of a man under a woman's thumb ,we do not really why.She ruins his life (the death of his son is filmed in admirably succinct style ) ,we do not exactly why:does she love him? does she think he needs self-confidence ?does she want to share his sufferings -she tells him so - some S/M from a distance?
In spite of her and her blackmail,he gets married and he loses both wife and child ,as well as his bookstore and his house ;he does not seem to care anymore.
He paces up and down the road which borders the sea: this way seems to merge into the sky ,and he wanders around this bench where he used to meet the woman he loved;just like the heiress,in Wyler's classic,used to go up and down the stairs of the mansion.
What may have attracted Claude Chabrol in the story might be money ,Kate seems to attach great value to;see also the scene with Handling where the hero has to mortgage his possessions)
All in all,this MTV work perplexes the viewer;Kate plays with Dodd as though she was solving an equation which leaves no place for feelings or heart: Quimperlé ,where the movie was filmed on location ,looks like a shroud ;all is white ,too white.
Watch out for Michel Piccoli's cameo in the hotel.Chabrol would film the second film of the miniseries.
"The bench of desolation" is part of a miniseries based on Henry James' short stories ,filmed by various directors.It's a medium length feature. (52 minutes)
In "Bench" ,Claude Chabrol meets again Michel Duchaussoy he already directed in his masterful " Que La Bête Meure" An accomplished thespian ,Duchaussoy gives a restrained performance (in the last shot,he looks like a little boy)of a man under a woman's thumb ,we do not really why.She ruins his life (the death of his son is filmed in admirably succinct style ) ,we do not exactly why:does she love him? does she think he needs self-confidence ?does she want to share his sufferings -she tells him so - some S/M from a distance?
In spite of her and her blackmail,he gets married and he loses both wife and child ,as well as his bookstore and his house ;he does not seem to care anymore.
He paces up and down the road which borders the sea: this way seems to merge into the sky ,and he wanders around this bench where he used to meet the woman he loved;just like the heiress,in Wyler's classic,used to go up and down the stairs of the mansion.
What may have attracted Claude Chabrol in the story might be money ,Kate seems to attach great value to;see also the scene with Handling where the hero has to mortgage his possessions)
All in all,this MTV work perplexes the viewer;Kate plays with Dodd as though she was solving an equation which leaves no place for feelings or heart: Quimperlé ,where the movie was filmed on location ,looks like a shroud ;all is white ,too white.
Watch out for Michel Piccoli's cameo in the hotel.Chabrol would film the second film of the miniseries.
