:
Sandrine Bonnaire,
Sandrine Bonnaire,
Jacques Gamblin,
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:
Claude Chabrol,
Claude Chabrol
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: Kino
: Foreign, France, Crime, Cops
: 113 min.
: French
: English
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This thriller from veteran director Claude Chabrol is a tense suspense drama, leavened with sly humor, about the fallout from a shocking crime in a small town. Frederique Lesage (Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi), the new chief of police in a cozy and fashionable seaside community in Brittany, soon finds her job more eventful than she expected when a ten-year-old girl is found raped and murdered. The last person to see her alive was René Sterne (Jacques Gamblin), a cynical and once-famous artist who has fallen on hard times and gives drawing lessons to children to make ends meet. René, who is passionately devoted to his wife (Sandrine Bonnaire), a nurse whose perpetual good cheer is the polar opposite of his personality, quickly becomes the prime suspect in the absence of any real clues. Meanwhile, Frederique becomes better acquainted with the eccentric residents of the town, including a self-important TV journalist (Antoine de Caunes), a small-time crook who fences stolen goods (Pierre Marlot), and a curious pair of married shopkeepers (Bulle Ogier and Noel Simsolo). Chabrol's son Matthieu Chabrol composed the score for this film. ~ Mark Deming, All Movie Guide
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| Lies, not Colorful but Bleak and Grey
by talltale
November 8, 2005 - 9:15 AM PST
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1 out of 1 members found this review helpful
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Claude Chabrol is in a slightly warmer, less satirical and much more pensive mood with THE COLOR OF LIES. Instead of a cast of characters to whom we can feel superior (well, there IS one grandiose TV host we can hate), most of the people here are sadder than nasty, particularly the two leads played wonderfully by Sandrine Bonnaire and Jacques Gamblin. You will feel their heartache, as they try to negotiate life and society, making some whopping mistakes along the way that come back to haunt them. The detective on the case is nicely interpreted by Valeria Bruni-Tedeschi, too, with more feeling and less push than her male counterparts might offer.
There's a lot going on here, yet the movie never quite jells, as often happens with Chabrol. The director decides to withhold certain information, and so the payoff, when it comes, seem a bit of a cheat. As much as I enjoy many of his films, I think it is this sort of thing that holds Chabrol back from first-rank status. That, plus a sameness to the pacing, tone, visuals, even the performances that cries out for more variety, more construction, more art. Maybe I am asking this director to be something he cannot. I am happy to enjoy what he gives us, but there are times--his more recent and not yet on DVD here in the States, "La Demoiselle d'Honneur" is another example--when I wish he would go that extra few steps into completion. But loose ends and confusion are as much a part of Chabrol as they are of life. Get used to it, film fans (and I am speaking as much to myself here, as to anyone else). |
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GreenCine Member Rating
(Average 6.17)
6 Votes
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