Word: hitchcocked
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Cheri Theatre 3-Alfred Hitchcock's Topaz, Ditto...
Director Claude Chabrol, a disciple of Hitchcock, shoots more for nuance than frisson. It is his wily variations on a hoary theme that give La Femme Infidèle its own small distinction. A wealthy Parisian insurance man (Michel Bouquet) takes casual note that his supple young wife (Stephane Audran) acts rather nervous when he interrupts her on the telephone. He engages a private detective to follow her on her shopping trips to Paris and has his worst suspicions quickly confirmed: she is having an affair. Her paramour is a writer (Maurice Ronet) who lives mostly off his "independent means...
Chabrol edits his film like Hitchcock, cutting to unexpected angles for jarring surprise effect, and stages a body disposal scene that is reminiscent of Psycho. The performances are restrained and electric with tension, like the film itself. La Femme Infidèle does not have the full impact of the master's touch, but at least it demonstrates the benefits of the Hitchcock tutelage...
...PERENNIAL success of Hitchcock at the box office shows fear to be a popular commodity. In the American film world, shock and suspense are synonymous with Hitchcock. In France, the leading master of fear is Henri-Georges Clouzot...
...Wages of Fear (1953) has been generally and rightly acclaimed as Clouzot's most accomplished film to date. The sharply and subtly drawn development of the often implicit relationships between characters takes place in a cauchemaresque and lurid atmosphere to form a totality more impressive than Hitchcock's greatest. For Hitchcock, the most important thing is suspense, so that many other things, such as depth and flexibility of character, are sacrificed to the single aim of scaring the collective pants off his audience. Suspense is an essential element in Clouzot as well, but the three-dimensionality of his characters...