Les Eaux dormantes (1992)
Directed by Jacques Tréfouel

Film Review

Les Eaux dormantes is based on a novel by the legendary French suspense thriller writing team Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, whose works have provided material for some of the best suspense films of all time, including Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo (1958) and H.G. Clouzot's Les Diaboliques (1955). This one is a substantially less significant work, the only film directed by Jacques Tréfouel for the cinema (all of his other work was for French television). Looking too much like a low budget TV movie, Les Eaux dormantes lacks pace and tension and is singularly uninvolving. The film boasts an extraordinary cast that includes some of French cinema's biggest names - Danièle Delorme, Daniel Gélin, Michel Galabru - but a lacklustre script that delights in obfuscation prevents any of these charismatic actors from making much of an impact. The film begins well enough, setting up the mystery and introducing a bizarre set of characters.  Unfortunately, neither the plot nor the characters develop sufficiently to maintain the audience's attention, and the over-contrived suspense becomes tedious and actually slows the pace down to an unbearable crawl. Things go from bad to worse when a barrage of flashbacks suddenly gets thrown at us, complicating an already bewildering narrative. By the time the mystery is resolved you will most likely have given up the will to live.

Film Synopsis

Denis de Lespinière returns to his large family estate in Brittany after having spent three tough years working for the charity Médecins Sans Frontières in Cambodia.  It is not long after his arrival in France that Denis receives an unsigned letter notifying him of his father's disappearance.  Anxious that his father might be in serious trouble, Denis confronts his mother, but for some reason she refuses to answer his questions and insists that they must not involve the police.  His retarded sister Clara and the household servants are equally as reticent.  Sensing that something is very amiss Denis decides to undertake his own investigation, but, despite his best efforts, he constantly comes up against a wall of silence. In the end, the only person he can turn to is Eva, the young woman he once had strong feelings for and tried to talk into accompanying him in his flight to the Far East.  When Eva then goes missing Denis soon discovers that he has been caught in a carefully laid trap...