Martin Bradley
An early scene in "Cop au Vin" (or "Poulet au vinaigre") features a petulant Mommy's boy, a domineering mother and a cellar. Sound familiar? However, this is Chabrol and not Hitchcock though you may say that's the next best thing. "Cop au Vin" may not be in the front rank of Chabrol movies but this excellent account of typically well-heeled Chabrolians doing nasty things to each other will do very nicely indeed.Naturally Stephane Audran is here; she's the domineering mother, this time confined to a wheelchair, and about to be evicted from her home by those nasty rich people. Lucas Belvaux is the petulant son and others in the cast include the wonderful Michel Bouquet, Jean Topart, Pauline Lafont and Jean Poiret as the very unorthodox inspector brought in to investigate a couple of mysterious deaths. There may not be anything profoundly engaging or even particularly memorable about the picture but it remains a highly enjoyable thriller and is certainly no disgrace to the names of either Chabrol or his mentor, Mr Hitchcock.
Red-Barracuda
An overbearing wheelchair bound woman and her postman son are threatened by a group of amoral businessmen from the local village who want their property for a lucrative development project. The mother gets her son to bring in the mail pertaining to these men and steams open their letters in order to keep abreast of their plans. Meanwhile, a couple of suspicious deaths follow and a police inspector with questionable methods gets involved, attempting to solve the crime.This 80's Claude Chabrol murder-mystery is not one that I would describe as occupying the upper bracket of his work. Its plot-line has quite a few things happening in it but it consequently doesn't have the focus of his best work. It still follows the basic template he often seems to follow in that its story is underpinned by a crime but the real focus of attention seems to be on the weaknesses and character defects of its cast. This one is no different but doesn't have as interesting dynamics between its characters as usual. Chabrol's wife and regular actress Stephane Audran appears as the wheelchair-bound mother. She was often the best thing about the movies she appeared in but here her character is somewhat unappealing and she is never the main focus in any case. The setting is pure Chabrol though, small-town rural France with the typical pastel colour scheme to match. The mystery itself is serviceable enough and the various plot strands do ensure there is enough going on but this is not top drawer Chabrol for me.
Bob Taylor
Poiret worked with Michel Serrault on several films, and wrote the script for La cage aux folles, one of the most successful French films of all time. He's a veteran in the industry, so Chabrol must have figured Poiret could improve the box-office figures for this tight little noir. Here again, Chabrol is condemning the provincial bourgeoisie for all the venality and murderous lust they're capable of.Poiret doesn't disappoint. He's very rough with some slimy characters in this small town; it's fun to watch him dunking the lawyer's face in the sink full of water as he cheerily goes through the interrogation. He's a lot more fun to watch than Clint Eastwood ever was. The expression "pince-sans-rire" could have been invented to describe this actor.
jameswtravers
This is a pretty conventional crime thriller of the 1980s, with some criminally dull characterisation and limp acting performances. None of the principal characters, except the formidable Lavardin, appears to have any substance, and the end result is by and large lacklustre and plodding.Thankfully, the film does have its saving graces. Firstly, the character of Lavardin is well played by Jean Poiret. The police inspector's methods and persona are so unconventional that he comes across as more frightening and sinister than any of the murder suspects. Then there is Mathieu Chabrol's eerie background music which imbues a sense of menace into even the (few) lighter scenes. But the strongest selling point is the camera work, heavily embossed with Chabrol's style. This film has some very chilling moments which are achieved through a clever combination of lighting and camera angles. The style is that of a very sophisticated suspense thriller, even if the content isn't.Although the films does succeed to some extent at a technical level, the shallowness of the characterisation and the overly complex plot drag the film down to the ranks - almost - of a somewhat mediocre television movie.
AD
