VeteranLight I don't have all the words right now but this film is a work of art.

Borserie it is finally so absorbing because it plays like a lyrical road odyssey that’s also a detective story.

Anoushka Slater While it doesn't offer any answers, it both thrills and makes you think.

Freeman This film is so real. It treats its characters with so much care and sensitivity.

Martin Bradley "La Femme Infidele" is arguably Claude Chabrol's finest film and certainly one of the masterpieces of sixties French cinema. The adulterous wife is, yes you've guessed it, Stephane Audran and Michel Bouquet is the cuckolded husband who decides to confront his wife's lover, Maurice Ronet, with fatal results. Perhaps the gentle art of murder has never been as gentle or as artful as here. I don't think I've ever seen killers, victims or those caught in-between behave in such a civilized manner. The performances are brilliant, the script a constant delight and Chabrol's direction is pitch-perfect. Not to be missed.

Red-Barracuda Claude Chabrol is known affectionately as 'the French Hitchcock'. And while I can see why he is labelled as such, it isn't a terribly accurate description. His films are ostensibly thrillers but the difference between Chabrol and Hitchcock is that the former is only superficially interested in suspense. His films effectively use the thriller framework in order to explore issues of human psychology, morality and sexuality. While pivotal, the crimes depicted in his films are almost incidental, they are merely catalysts that lead to the human dramas that truly interest him. Its the psychological aftermath of crime and the complex human emotions that it unleashes that drives his films.La Femme Infidèle is no different in this regard. Its about a love triangle that ends in the murder of the secret lover. The married couple's relationship actually strengthens on account of this homicide. This atypical approach to human relationships is common in Chabrol's universe. I wouldn't necessarily say that characters in his movies act in particularly realistic ways. They always seem to be somewhat emotionally detached. In this case it is no different. The married couple seem to navigate through these moments of heightened tension with little more than a Gallic shrug. But this is the style of the director and his familiar ensemble of actors. Once again his muse Stéphane Audran is radiant as the unhappy wife; while Michel Bouquet impresses as her husband. Visually the film is typical in its low-key look, which fits the psychological mood. Its pastel colours reflect the detached feeling too.Its one of the directors best films. Everyone is on the top of their game and the deceptively simple plot line is never less than engaging. Like most other Chabrol, there is a lot going on under the surface here. It ends on a very ambiguous note. One than can be interpreted in different ways. The final camera pan is strangely compelling and mysterious. It makes you want to watch the movie again.

Eumenides_0 In my desire to discover the work of Claude Chabrol, I watched The Unfaithful Wife. And I regret saying it was a disappointment.Chabrol constructs a capable, but unmemorable suspense movie. He knows the language and structure of the genre, but the movie lacks that extra element that makes it special.A loving husband suspects his wife is betraying him with another man. He hires a private detective to prove him right. Then he decides to confront the lover. There's no point describing the rest of the story, but then again there's nothing worth describing afterwards. It's a straightforward, banal plot without any innovation, interesting dialogue or great acting to rise it above mediocrity.There is perhaps fifteen minutes worth of tension, suspense or originality in the movie. They occur when the husband meets the lover. He does it in a charming, friendly way. He insinuates himself into the lover's apartment with full honesty but pretending not to care about the affair. He earns the lover's trust. All the time the viewer is thinking what is going to happen next. It's genuinely thrilling, but that's it.There's an attempt at ambiguity at the end of the movie, but rather than being something that challenges our ideas or values, it's just one of those dull ambiguous endings that desperate directors of thrillers end their unspectacular movies with, where we're left wondering whether the killer is or is not going to be caught. Seeing as how that's not really the point of the movie, and seeing how the viewer is never seduced into caring about the characters all, it's quite pointless.Claude Chabrol is so praise - he's called the French Hitchcock; but people can be too generous in their compliments sometimes - that I'm hoping my next attempt at his movies will be better. But this was a poor introduction.

writers_reign There are at least two ways of describing this entry: Early Chabrol and/or Vintage Chabrol. Depends on what you mean by love. Chronologically it dates from his early days as writer-director and if you are moved to describe those days as vintage then who am I to argue. Certainly it has Chabrol's signature all over it; the cool, almost passionless behaviour of the principals, the affluent lifestyles usually on the fringes of large cities (in this case Versailles and Neuilly) which could be read by those who have nothing better to do as a metaphor for the leading characters who could be said to exist on the fringes of civilised behaviour. This time around Michel Bouquet is in a well established marriage with Stephane Audran - at one point Audran remarks to their son that he will soon be ten years old - and although he seems to have little interest in sleeping with her, witness his polite rejection of her sexual overtures, he doesn't take too kindly to Maurice Ronet pinch-hitting for him. Having acquired Ronet's address via private heat he pays a social call on his wife's lover and almost as an afterthought brutally kills him whilst discussing the situation as one civilised man to another. Naturally Audran is in the frame yet soon enough the attention switches to Bouquet at which point Audran, realising what has happened, destroys evidence that could help convict Bouquet. Like I said, civilised to a fare-thee-well. Lots of quality on offer here, Writing, Direction, Acting, Photography all up to snuff and beyond. Highly enjoyable.