La Mort de Belle (1961)
Directed by Edouard Molinaro

Film Review

Transference 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.

Film Synopsis

Living near Geneva with his wife, Stéphane Blanchon leads a respectable middle-class existence as a literature teacher.  He is the model citizen, but when a young woman is found dead, murdered in his house, the finger of suspicion is quick to point in his direction and his whole world rapidly begins to fall apart.  The woman in question is a young American student named Belle, the daughter of a friend of Stéphane's wife.  The couple had agreed to accommodate Belle in their villa whilst she completed her studies, and even though she was an incredibly attractive girl, Stéphane had no amorous designs on her throughout the period he knew her.  In the course of the police investigation, it becomes apparent that Belle was secretly in love with him, and Stéphane begins to wonders if he did after all offer her any encouragement.

It is now, with his nerves and reputation both the worse for wear after being put through the wringer, that the teacher suddenly becomes aware of how strait-laced and colourless his life has been, and how little he has succeeded in both his private and professional lives.  When he is finally acquitted of the murder charge, Stéphane makes up his mind to start leading a new, far less inhibited life.  He begins by going out on the town and experiencing Geneva's vibrant night life.  This is how he comes to meet Alice, a young woman he finds he is strongly attracted to.  She appears more than willing to spend a night of torrid passion with him, but when she takes Stéphane back to her room the spectre of Belle suddenly returns to the teacher.  It seems that history is about to repeat itself...