La Mort de Belle / The End of Belle / Edouard Molinaro

La Mort de Belle

1961 Crime / Drama

Credits

Director: Edouard Molinaro
Script: Jean Anouilh, based on a novel by Georges Simenon
Photo: Jean-Louis Picavet
Music: Georges Delerue
Cast: Jean Desailly (Stéphane Blanchon), Alexandra Stewart (Belle), Monique Mélinand (Mme. Monique Blanchon), Yvette Etiévant (Alice, la secrétaire du juge), Jacques Monod (Le juge d’instruction Bechman), Marc Cassot (Le commissaire), Jacques Pierre (Philippe Berthe), Yves Robert (Le barman), Louisa Colpeyn (La mère de Belle), Van Doude (Le docteur), Maurice Teynac (L’ivrogne), Pierre Vaneck (Gardien de la morgue)
Country: France
Language: French
Runtime: 91 min; B&W
Aka: The End of Belle; The Passion of Slow Fire

Summary

Stéphane Blanchon is a respectable teacher of French who lives in Switzerland with his wife. The couple accommodate an American student, Belle, who is completing her studies. When Belle is murdered, suspicion falls immediately on Blanchon. As the police investigation probes into his past, the teacher becomes aware of his attraction towards Belle. Perhaps he did killer her after all...

Review

Transfer of guilt, that ingenious device beloved on crime thriller writers and Alfred Hitchcock, forms the basis for this masterfully composed psychological drama. Although Edouard Molinaro is perhaps best known for his box office hits such as Hibernatus (1969) and La Cage aux folles (1978), he also directed a number of respectable serious films, of which La Mort de Belle is among his best, a respectable adaptation of a Georges Simenon novel.

© James Travers 2003

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