I blush to admit this was my first Chabrol film. I probably should have started with something earlier, or more experimental, or more unified, but there you have it. As fate would have it, I started with a very recent film by a man who has been making films for about half a century.
From subsequent research on the film, I find that it apparently reflects on themes that Chabrol has been addressing for his entire career. You'll have to look elsewhere to find that discussion, though. Since I came to the film clear-eyed and unaware, that seems like the most logical way for me to review it. The plot concerns a French family of some wealth and history. Many dark secrets reverberate in the family home, including a romance between two step-siblings and whispers that Aunt Line may have murdered her own father because he was a Nazi. The film doesn't have a plot so much as a mood. The matriarch is running for a local political position, but this mainly serves as an excuse for more whispering behind innumerable backs. The step-sibling relationship is actually believable and a bit touching, and we root for the young lovers to such an extent that a tragic yet inevitable final twist leaves us hoping their relationship survives.
The film is chilly and reserved, especially considering the passionate topics with which it deals. Everything is kept at arm's length, which seems to be the way the family deals with the same emotions. Everyone drinks their troubles away or has ill-advised affairs rather than confront the emotions running so close to the surface. This was a perfectly serviceable film, quite French in its way, with strong performances and just the right amount of surprise. I've no desire to see this film again anytime soon, and yet you can certainly do worse on a rainy, chilly summer evening.
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