|
THE FLOWER OF EVIL Send This Review to a Friend
French director Claude Chabrol, an icon of the French New Wave that took off in the late 1950s and early 1960s, remains in fine form with his latest venture into suspense and evil doings. "The Flower of Evil," the aptly titled new work that was showcased at the 2003 York Film Festival, concerns the Charpin-Vasseur family and involves three generations plus a bit of French history. It has an excellent cast that includes Nathalie Baye and the veteran actress Suzanne Flon.
The setting involves Anne (Baye) who is running for mayor and is intensely focused on her quest, to the chagrin of her husband Gérard (Bernard Le Coq). The situation is spiced with the return from America of Gérard's son François (Benoît Magimel). We also meet Anne's daughter Michèle (Mélanie Doutey), for whom François has a compelling attraction. What gives with these two? His father and her mother married after the deaths of their spouses. What went on before?
The pivotal character, however, is the aunt, Tante Line, played richly by Flon in a performance that makes the film worth seeing for that reason alone. She holds an important key and assumes a vital role in the events that erupt. More information can spoil things, but trust Chabrol and his co-screenwriters (Caroline Eliacheff and Louise Lambrichs) to work up a touch of the macabre, suspense and revelation, all tinged with a bit of gallows humor and set in the framework of character clashes and politics. A Palm Pictures release.
|