Audience Member
Overlong and self-indulgent minor Chabrol thriller, plainly filmed in characteristic cold Autumnal greys. The melodramatic plot begins with an inexplicable (and badly staged) act of domestic violence, and then becomes a potentially interesting study of subterfuge, located in an eccentric boarding house. But the plot loses focus and plausibility.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
01/27/23
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Audience Member
The late '60s-early '70s psychodramas from Claude Chabrol ranging from Les Biches (1968) to Just Before Nightfall (1971) - six films - all have something to offer. La Rupture (The Breach) is a particularly weird one, starring (again) Stephane Audran (Chabrol's then wife) as a young mother whose child is injured by her (depressed substance abuser) husband. She seeks a divorce but the husband's parents want custody of their grandchild; to discredit the mother, they hire a childhood friend of the husband (played by Jean-Pierre Cassel) to follow her and possibly to attempt to put her in a compromising position. So, these characters are placed in some extreme situations (accented by intense electronic music) and viewers can expect to experience emotional stress at times. This film is less Hitchcockian than some of the others from this period of Chabrol - perhaps we never quite expect Cassel and the in-laws to succeed so suspense isn't built. Yet, there is enough oddness here to hold your attention, especially if you have gotten the taste for Chabrol.
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
02/04/23
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Audience Member
A slightly odd picture. Though a fine story reveals itself over the course of the film, it is difficult to determine whether it is not at points attempting to satirize the dramatic devices of Hitchcock. Framed with beginnings and endings that seem somewhat askew compared to the sober and tightly-plotted middle-section, the film comes off as hazy and ambiguous. Good fun all the same.
Rated 3/5 Stars •
Rated 3 out of 5 stars
02/21/23
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Audience Member
an interesting curiosity
Rated 3.5/5 Stars •
Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars
01/15/23
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Audience Member
A truly cinematic movie where evey shot is interesting and necessary.
Rated 4.5/5 Stars •
Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars
02/01/23
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Audience Member
Utterly Brilliant Chabrol film show yet again what a great director he truly is and how his films cast a spell on this reviewer.
Starring Stephane Audran as a wife who leaves her violent husband after a shocking act of brutality the film takes a totally mad turn when the parents of the husband hire the most shabby Private eye ever comitted to film (Wonderfully played by Jean Pierre Cassel).
There is nothing this gut will not stoop to ,be it drugging handicapped girls or drugging orange juice Cassel aand Chabrol make hin utterly loathsome in every respect ,but yet he still remains interesting.
The films final acts are amongst the strangest in the Chabrol canon and i urge you to check out this directors other work ,he may not be as celebrated as Godard and Trufffaut but in my eyes he is on a par with these directors and then some
Rated 5/5 Stars •
Rated 5 out of 5 stars
02/23/23
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