Another addition to the familiar Chabrol world: the French bourgeoisie; a strong sense of locale; the standard couple of scenes at the dinner table; psychology rather than action/violence (the climactic murder is almost irrelevant to the film as a whole); the grand stylist at work (the camera’s movement down the tree-lined path to the beach as an image of the film’s excavation of the past). Although it never digs as deeply – emotionally, thematically, or in terms of acting performance – as Chabrol’s last great masterpiece La Cérémonie, The Flower of Evil, within the limits Chabrol sets for his world and for his cinema, works in a highly satisfying way.
by Ian Johnston | Source: Palm Pictures DVD
07 Mar 2006 12:13 PM | Submit Comment