I like Chabrol's early work but he is not the very great film director he is made out to be. Without Hitchcock and Clouzot this film would not have existed. He tones down and sometimes exceeds the pessimism of Clouzot while upping the sensationalism of the more sensational Hitchcock films. 'La Rupture' is the apotheosis of this excess.
As a gay reviewer I cannot condone his vulgar and distasteful representation and exploitation of lesbianism, nor his stereotyped and exploitative representation of a person with learning difficulties and the linking of these two in a frankly disgusting scene of sexual abuse (yes, hetero males read and learn). Nor can I respond to the utter brutality towards the child at the beginning of the film, nor the husband being killed in such an atrocious way at the end. He had psychological problems that Chabrol did not have the maturity to explore.
Audran performs to perfection as usual, unlike the rest of the cast. As for the mental state into which her character is placed at the end of the film, it compares with what Clouzot did at the end of his appalling film 'La Prisonniere'.
There are also in my opinion too many characters, and it is far too long. Towards the so called climax, anything can happen. There is no inexorable logic and any sensationalist ending could 'work'.
With the so-called lover of the Cassel character, Chabrol not only debases lesbians but women full stop!
A hateful film, illuminated by Audran who seems as remote from it all as the balloons rising into the sky. I give the film four for her, but still worry about the high ratings given by other reviewers as it shows people actually relate to this debasement.
As a gay reviewer I cannot condone his vulgar and distasteful representation and exploitation of lesbianism, nor his stereotyped and exploitative representation of a person with learning difficulties and the linking of these two in a frankly disgusting scene of sexual abuse (yes, hetero males read and learn). Nor can I respond to the utter brutality towards the child at the beginning of the film, nor the husband being killed in such an atrocious way at the end. He had psychological problems that Chabrol did not have the maturity to explore.
Audran performs to perfection as usual, unlike the rest of the cast. As for the mental state into which her character is placed at the end of the film, it compares with what Clouzot did at the end of his appalling film 'La Prisonniere'.
There are also in my opinion too many characters, and it is far too long. Towards the so called climax, anything can happen. There is no inexorable logic and any sensationalist ending could 'work'.
With the so-called lover of the Cassel character, Chabrol not only debases lesbians but women full stop!
A hateful film, illuminated by Audran who seems as remote from it all as the balloons rising into the sky. I give the film four for her, but still worry about the high ratings given by other reviewers as it shows people actually relate to this debasement.