Les Noces Rouges

Claude Chabrol, 1973
There’s a certain jeu d’esprit about this film that is rather pleasing. A nice pace, a nice perky sense of the ridiculous. There is real pleasure in the tearing across the rooms, a nice and sharp story told. Piccoli is excellent at this; always on the edge of ridiculous, he comes across as sharp, urgent, while indeed with a hint of the silly.
The camera is also on live form, with a large number of circling movements, relatively fast cuts. There is also a rare (for Chabrol) moment of visual stylisation around the burning car.
We have our usual themes of crazy love, poisoning and so on, with a crime, the amour fou partner accepting. Always someone trying to help, trying to accept the others’ crazy desire, but making things worse. Also note the repetitions of love scenes in the forest by the river, never too dense, among trees on cloudy days.
This isn’t exactly very different from much of Chabrol’s work, but is sharply made.