‘This story must be buried.’
In how many films do we see a
criminal suffering from guilt obsession of murder so terribly that he confesses
everything without any sort of external pressure or obligation and then the
offended man pardons him instantly not in one case but two; most closest
relationships of life. It heightens the psychological guilt of the protagonist
urging to get punishment. It may be accidental or chance surprise murder but
the guilt is something that is focused at its naked core here. This is a
meditation on guilt.
A young wife was strangled on bed
as the film opens; slowly we come to know that she’s married woman and an
infidel dwelled in multiple liaisons. And we know the man who killed her. He is
an upper class bourgeois and responsible family guy. He is being considered as timid
by his colleague and who’ve never indulged in any sort of crime much before he
entrapped with the lady who happens to be his closest friend’s wife.
This is my third Chabrol film and
so far he never failed to impress me with his treatment and character
projection however cliché the plot is. The way he builds a tension with slow
and calm intensity is something you won’t find in many mature filmmakers’
cinema. Infact it was not murder mystery at all to give you momentary
excitement in form of entertainment but something which a few filmmakers has
touched upon. It is an intensifying drama and tragedy built on its
protagonist’s obsessive guilt consciousness. Though slow in pace it maintains
fine equilibrium of seriousness between tension and drama and an absolutely
invigorating play between the morbid sadistic desire and masochistic affair. In
one word this is Chabrol’s open love letter to the guilt consciousness and
remorse. Surely one of the finest of Chabrol and something that is mandatory to all serious cinema lovers.
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