Films/DVD Asylum

Posted by tinear (A) on January 30, 2013 at 14:20:25

even criticized (though in fairness it must be pointed out that more than one critic calls it a "masterpiece" and the pinnacle of Chabrol's sly art) because it so easily is misconstrued.
It has little to do with horror or thriller films, generally, even though it's about a vicious serial killer.
Chabrol has little interest in shocking you with gore or savagery. Even less with creating a complex whodunit. Chabrol is a psychologist/philosopher, rather, who has chosen film as his medium.
A man, obviously traumatized by his military career in the brutal colonial wars of Algeria and Indo-China takes up his father's trade as a small town butcher. He becomes drawn to the beautiful school mistress who, for a decade, has forgone intimacy because of a tragic and failed love affair. These two seemingly incompatible people still find themselves intrigued and drawn to one another, perhaps even more so because of a series of shockingly brutal killings that occur around the formerly idyllic village.
How much does she suspect? Does the killer see her as the ultimate sacrifice to be made?
There are many fascinating questions, but don't expect anything like you've experienced before, even from Chabrol.
This is a beautifully filmed, exquisitely scored, and note-perfectly acted film that will unnerve the careful viewer.

• He is NOT the French Hitchcock!!!!!!!   (Open in New Window)