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THE FLOWER OF EVIL
Directed by: Claude Chabrol.
Produced by: Marin Karmitz.
Written by: Claude Chabrol, Caroline Eliacheff & Louise L. Lambrichs.
Director of Photography: Eduardo Serra.
Edited by: Monique Fardoulis.
Music by: Matthieu Chabrol.
Released by: Lions Gate.
Language: French.
Country of Origin: France. 104 min. Rated: R.
With: Nathalie Baye, Benoît Magimel, Bernard Le Coq, Mélanie Doutey & Suzanne Flon.
DVD Features: Family Tree. Trailer. Photo Gallery. DVD-ROM weblinks. Cast & filmmaker bios. English Subtitles.

Since the beginning of his career as one the French New Wave founders, Claude Chabrol has developed a directorial style that explicates, rather than imitates, the cinematic techniques and themes of Alfred Hitchcock. In his latest - and 50th - film, The Flower of Evil, Chabrol continues to engage in an ambivalent meditation on the Master’s unique film language, using Hitchcockian conventions to develop menace in a story involving a family’s sins continuously manifested through three generations.

Hitchcock’s films share Chabrol’s sensibility of everyday malfeasance. As with his earlier Les Cousins (1959), in which the titular relatives found themselves in a triangle with another woman, Chabrol again portrays a perversely romantic situation between François (Magimel) and Michele (Doutey), who are not only step-siblings, but also (in a twist on Les Cousins’ story) cousins.

Much of the movie asks the tantalizing question of what Aunt Line (masterfully acted by Suzanne Flon, in a performance equal parts regret and defiance) is recalling in her flashbacks. That Line’s secret involves the murder of her father (said to be a Nazi sympathizer) is certain; less definite is whether it was justified. Also initially obscure are Line’s familial connections; she is the aunt of Michele’s mother Anne (Baye, who emerges as the film’s anchor), but the dead Nazi party member is identified as Anne’s grandfather. It is also unclear whether Line is blood related to Anne’s husband (and François’ father) Gerard (Le Coq), who married Anne when their spouses respectively died. (As if anticipating the confusion over the familial relationships, a much-needed family tree is included as a DVD special feature.) Thickening the plot, an anonymous letter brings back a scandal complicating Anne’s run for political office. Lampooning bourgeois values and political maneuvering, the parallel stories then messily collide.

The film, though stylish, is predictable, and not substantial enough. The voyeuristic camera, the stagy choreography of some scenes, and the jazzy Bernard Herrmann-influenced musical score are well executed, but do not sustain the movie. However, there is masterful use of depth-of-focus - such as a moment when two characters are behind a birdcage in the foreground, making them appear to be trapped. Ultimately, Chabrol should recognize that while evil is often banal, one cannot merely rely on murder to make a movie engaging without the risk of the end product becoming somewhat banal in itself. Reymond Levy
May 23, 2004