Just Before Nightfall (1971)
(Juste avant la nuit)
Country: FR
Technical: col 107m
Director: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Michel Bouquet, Stéphane Audran, François Périer
Synopsis:
A happily married businessman has an affair with his best friend's wife, strangles her, then is disappointed when he isn't caught and punished.
Review:
An interesting addition to the director's sequence of films on guilt and expiation, with similarities to La Femme Infidèle. While the rectitude of the central character and his wife's loyalty are impressive and worthwhile concepts for exploration in themselves, the film falls down on the lack of credibility of its initial premise - that he should wish to kill her because they play sadistic games together, all presented in about two minutes of screen time - and its unconvincing execution.
(Juste avant la nuit)
Country: FR
Technical: col 107m
Director: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Michel Bouquet, Stéphane Audran, François Périer
Synopsis:
A happily married businessman has an affair with his best friend's wife, strangles her, then is disappointed when he isn't caught and punished.
Review:
An interesting addition to the director's sequence of films on guilt and expiation, with similarities to La Femme Infidèle. While the rectitude of the central character and his wife's loyalty are impressive and worthwhile concepts for exploration in themselves, the film falls down on the lack of credibility of its initial premise - that he should wish to kill her because they play sadistic games together, all presented in about two minutes of screen time - and its unconvincing execution.
(Juste avant la nuit)
Country: FR
Technical: col 107m
Director: Claude Chabrol
Cast: Michel Bouquet, Stéphane Audran, François Périer
Synopsis:
A happily married businessman has an affair with his best friend's wife, strangles her, then is disappointed when he isn't caught and punished.
Review:
An interesting addition to the director's sequence of films on guilt and expiation, with similarities to La Femme Infidèle. While the rectitude of the central character and his wife's loyalty are impressive and worthwhile concepts for exploration in themselves, the film falls down on the lack of credibility of its initial premise - that he should wish to kill her because they play sadistic games together, all presented in about two minutes of screen time - and its unconvincing execution.