Word: paule
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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Spoken references to that unfilmed past which set up the plot premise provide an idea both of Chabrol's pragmatism and the point at which his imagination begins to make connections and build strange relationships between the characters: Paul is the legitimate heir to the Wagner champagne firm, an old and fabulously respected French wine. His father was swindled out of ownership by a man whose daughter Christine (Yvonne Furneaux) now runs the company. Paul has only rights to the name Wagner, this preventing Christine from selling the company to crass American industrialists who won't buy the firm without...
...wife's infidelity, thus indirectly causing her death. The Champagne Murders, while sharing this theme, is immensely more complex, mind-bendingly hard to fathom. Substituted for the romantic dream-world of the student in Les Godulereaux or the marriage in The Third Lover is this harmony of tensions between Paul, Chris, and Christine. Perhaps only unconsciously aware of the degree to which they thrive on it, Paul and Chris work to preserve the status quo, while at the same time bitterly complaining about the need for change...
...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 to keep a control on himself but loses grip as he suspects himself of two murders he has no memory of committing...
...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...
...schizoid existences he leads. Too many other people are involved, for one thing, and his warped vision is too limited to see beyond the immediate mechanics of juggling wife, mistress, and friend. There is a glorious scene when, after the announcement of the second killing, Chris goes to Paul's house to tell Paul they must "stick together, that's the main thing," that Chris will shield Paul who he assumes has committed the crime. The door is locked and Chris must deliver the speech from outside; he is suspended in geographic limbo outside both houses. He walks nervously about...