La Fleur du mal (2003)
Directed by Claude Chabrol

Film Review

With La Fleur du mal, a masterfully composed psychological drama, acclaimed director Claude Chabrol revisits his favourite theme: murder within the bosom of the provincial Bourgeoisie.  It is a subject which is evidently dear to the director's heart, for it has given him the inspiration for some of his best films.  The idea of an elite group of individuals who foster an image of respectability and geniality to conceal their low moral standards and thereby get away with (literally) murder is perfect material for satire; it has occupied a prominent place in French films practically since the birth of cinema.  Chabrol's keen eye for detail and his acerbic wit have allowed him to craft a portrait of the Bourgeoisie which is simultaneously fascinating, disturbing and deliciously entertaining.

La Fleur du mal is primarily a sophisticated murder mystery, woven in typical Chabrolian fashion, although somewhat more abstract than we are perhaps used to.  It completes a trilogy which includes Chabrol's best psychological thrillers to date: La Cérémonie (1995) and Merci pour le chocolat (2000).  In each of these films, a crime of the distant past is purged by a murder, or attempted murder, committed in the present.  This notion of redemption is a recurring theme in Chabrol's cinema, but in La Fleur du mal the idea is developed more thoroughly and convincingly than previously - something which makes it one of the director's most intellectually satisfying works to date.

What this trilogy of films also have in common is their setting.  Each is centred around an upper middle class family which is isolated from the rest of French society, living within an hermetically sealed bubble, incapable of change and drained of humanity.  The errors of the past accumulate or are relived in a timeless present until, finally, the bubble bursts in a sudden dramatic climax.

Although the setting, style and subject of La Cérémonie, Merci pour le chocolat and La Fleur du mal are remarkably similar, their structure and content are subtlely different.  In contrast to the mounting dark intensity of the first and the chilling suspense of the second, La Fleur du mal is presented far more as a black comedy than a thriller.  Certainly, the scenes where the double-barrelled Anne Charpin-Vasseur - played to perfection by Nathalie Baye - tries to canvas votes on a low-income housing estate are hilarious, arguably the funniest scenes in any Chabrol film.  Yet, as ever in this unsettling Chabrolian world of double lives and double meanings, there is also the sense of something terrible lurking beneath the surface, an impression which the disorientating photography and haunting music skilfully evoke without distracting too much from the drama or comedy being played out in the foreground.  All is certainly not well in the Charpin-Vasseur household.

The performances - from an exceptional cast - also add to this uneasy sense of "there's more to this than meets the eye", particularly those of Suzanne Flon and Benoît Magimel.   Well into her eighties, Flon's screen presence is as strong as ever it was in her fifty-plus year long career as an actress and her subtle, introspective performance contributes a great deal to the film's depth and humanity.   Skipping a generation, Magimel is equally as impressive, proving himself ideal material for Chabrol's slightly warped brand of cinema.  He serves to hold together the film's many strands, whilst providing a sympathetic character - a partial outsider - with whom the audience can identify.  The rest of the cast, which includes Chabrol's son, Thomas, should also be commended for their contributions.

La Fleur de mal may not be quite as coherent or as viscerally shocking as some of Chabrol's previous examinations of closeted Bourgeois amorality.  However, it is nonetheless an accomplished work, attractively filmed and, thanks to its well-scripted and well-performed comic excursions, surprisingly entertaining.

Film Synopsis

François Vasseur returns to his well-to-do family home in Bordeaux after a four year stay in the United States and finds little  has changed.  His stepmother, Anne Charpin-Vasseur, is once more running in the local elections and his father, Gérard, still manages the local pharmacy.  He is even able to carry on his amorous liaison with his stepsister, Michèle, as if he hadn't been away, much to the delight of his aged Aunt Line.  Yet this picture of unchanging Bourgeois respectability is threatened.  To ruin Anne's chances in her election, someone has been circulating a pamphlet which resurrects old family scandals.  Should Aunt Line have been cleared of murdering her father, a Nazi sympathiser who was responsible for the death of her brother?  Was it prudent for Anne and Gérard to marry so soon after their respective spouses died, together, in a tragic car accident?  Does the Charpin-Vasseur family have a natural affinity for deceit, incest and murder?   Only one member of the family knows the answer to these questions...