Claude Chabrol Week 2/7 : Unfaithful Wife

UNFAITHFUL WIFE (LA FEMME INFIDELE)

(France 1969) Directed by Claude Chabrol

Directly following the release in March 68 of his incredible bisexual love triangle drama "Les Biches", French New Wave master Claude Chabrol initiated another exploration of the triangle situation and shot the hitchcockian "Unfaithful Wife" during summer '68. The film was made with the same crew and again with Chabrol's wife Stéphane Audran in the main role. It was released in January 69 in France.
This time, we follow Charles, a typical French bourgeois who suspects his wife to be unfaithful... The character is played with an icy perfect malaise by Michel Bouquet, a stageplay legend in France who found most of his best parts on screen with Chabrol. The cast also includes two great French male leads of the time, Michel Duchaussoy (in his first work with Chabrol) as the cop and Maurice Ronet. Basically la "crème de la crème".

At the time of the release, critics raved about the abrasive way Chabrol used the mechanics of classic hitchcockian murder dramas to deconstruct the behavior of the bourgeois class. All this is definitely true, but more importantly, Chabrol builds up here for the first time of his career a real efficient thriller around the wife-husband-lover trinity, purer than what its post-modern intentions may announce (is Clouzot really that far?). And he proves here that when he really wants it, he can be a master at very strong endings (this one and The Ceremony, made 26 years later being the best). Absolute classic.