One of Chabrol's best
La Femme Infidele (1969)
After being mildly underwhelmed by Juste Avant La Nuit & finding Que La Bette Meure solid & well crafted but otherwise unexceptional, I was much more impressed by Chabrol's 1969 movie about a husband, Charles (Michel Bouquet) who suspects his wife, Helene (Stephane Audran) of having an affair. Chabrol cunningly begins the film with the seeds of suspicion already planted in Charles' mind & for the first 50 mins or so he keeps both Charles & the audience guessing as to whether the wife even has another lover. Under the shadow of a possible infidelity casual exchanges between husband & wife become intensely engrossing while Bouquet draws a fascinating, sympathetic study of an unremarkable middle-aged man, in many respects a social inadequate, whose placid exterior conceals a single-minded devotion to his wife. A scene where he takes Helene to a disco in an effort to express his affection only to find himself out of his depth represents one quietly painful snub after another.
One of the great things about La Femme Infidel is just how subdued it all is. Scenes of Charles hiring a detective or following his wife are determinedly low key but no less gripping for it & composer Pierre Jansen's dissonant, atonal piano melodies add immeasurably to the sense of mood. There are no screaming matches between husband & wife & no graphic sex scenes between wife & lover. There is a brief, joltingly done murder & a couple of conventional thriller scenes but it's a testament to the films power that when it detours into a mildly Hitchcockian moment of suspense involving a traffic accident you find yourself wishing they'd get the scene over with so you can get back to the good character stuff between Charles & Helene. Not that the thriller stuff isn't good, just that the relationships between the characters is even better.
Both Bouquet & Audran give quietly superb performances. Audran, with her enigmatic half-smile is like French cinema's equivalent of the Mona Lisa. You can never quite tell what she may be thinking but at the same time you can't take your eyes off her. The reason for her taking a lover is never explained although it's implied that it may be nothing more than the physical charms of a younger, slimmer man. Bouquet is outstanding, especially in a face to face confrontation with his wife's younger lover. A scene where he recognizes a gift he gave to his wife, that his wife has passed onto her lover, possesses an almost unimaginable level of grief of which Bouquet allows the audience just a glimpse.
There's not much more I can say without giving the story away but Charles' motivations - is he seeking revenge, being driven by anger, jealousy, & how his discovery affects his relationship with Helene - are posed & finally answered in a terrific final scene that is as touching & hauntingly memorable as it is ambiguous. A terrific film. Highly recommended.