Word: chabrol
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Opposing pulls are acting on them. The working reality they have made for themselves comes dangerously close to cracking, filmed by Chabrol with the violent surrealism of a nightmare. Competently handling guests at party, Chris suddenly finds himself virtually assaulted by a grotesque woman who knew him as a Riviera stud. Chabrol distorts the sound, the background suddenly jumps from people in the room to a back projected screen of people in the room. The objective reality of the camera has shifted imperceptibly to the subjective perception of an unstable mind. Similarly, Paul, ambiguously scarred by the opening accident, strives...
...every pull that threatens to destroy the menage, Chabrol inserts with instinctive rightness suggestions of its permanence. The duplication of names--Chris and Christine--assumes relevance when Paul picks up a girl named Paola, who is prompt-murdered. No possibilty is allowed for Paul's reversing or breaking-out of his role in the trio. His sexuality has been effectively destroyed in the opening accident. Although Chris and Paul are introduced as inseparable, interchangeable companions, wearing the same plaid jackets, Chabrol slowly separates them, Paul entering a world of shadows, Chris existing in a private world of secrets...
...complexity to The Champaigne Murders. He is having enough trouble reconciling his past with his marriage with his friendship with his dreams of yachts with his furtive restlessness, and from all of this he retreats to yet another world, his secret affair with the woman played seductively by Chabrol's wife Stephane Audran. His dilemma is that of the Chabrolian malevolent driven to selfishly seek expedients, and that of the Chabrolian romantic clinging to an intangible yearning for love and friendship. The synthesis results in Chabrol's most complex and fascinating character but, with pragmatic pessimism, Chabrol makes Chris incompetent...
...violence of the deed is muted by the awesome lushness of the images, textures of decor which make murder a forbidden ritual of the insane. Paul's awakening to the knowledge that he is innocent of murder, and his brilliantly-edited compressed journey through the two houses, shows Chabrol repeating in quick succession the camera movements and color patterns (yellow-browns and wine colors) which have dominated the film; it is as if we are living it again in one and one-half minutes, all its energy compressed into that time, building to the inevitable release of seeing from Paul...
...revelations of the last scene display a highly sophisticated use of narrative exposition. On a content level, the truths of The Champagne Murders derive from scrupulous honesty--a retrospective look at the film resulting not so much in our remembering hints dropped conspicuously in early scenes as places where Chabrol didn't cheat. When Jacqueline the secretary types up the letter of transfor turning Paul's name over to Christine, she is shown in screen-left fore-ground in focus, with Paul and Christine out of focus in the background. Our eyes watch Paul and Christine because we think that...