Films/DVD Asylum

"Professeur Lavardin:" ripping good time as the dapper detective arrives at the mansion of a

67.160.130.12

This Post Has Been Edited by the Author

recently murdered successful author to discover his widow is an old flame.
Lots of interesting twists and, of course, with Chabrol the "mystery" is of secondary importance to his study of human nature under profound pressure.
Much to Chabrol's injury, he always is compared to Hitchcock. Though Chabrol, on the surface, appears to tread the same waters, that is really not so. Hitchcock liked to penetrate the darkest souls, to show how easily people will believe the worst or actually how easily they will so behave. He used great tension, thrills, and high drama to achieve his ends.
Hitchcock is a tiger, stealthy and ready to pounce.
Chabrol is more like the spider, carefully laying out his trap for the viewer and, once he is ensnared, he really is in no particular hurry to feast upon him. Very rarely do we get anything resembling action or a scene that makes us avert our eyes or jump. But the tension builds, rather, through a maddeningly slow accumulation of seemingly innocent acts that we gather, with ever mounting dread, will have a horrible end.
I never appreciated Chabrol because I didn't understand him; I expected thrills and chills when that expressly is what he avoids in order to shock the viewer all the more deeply.

Edits: 11/21/12

Follow Ups: