Director: Claude Lelouch
Year: 1975
Country: France
Rating: 6.5
Aka - Le chat et la souris
There is a murder investigation here if
you dig deep enough. It is French though and thus charming and eccentric
as it meanders around and about like a bee in an orchard with little logic.
It is directed by Claude Lelouch famous for his romantic classic, A Man and
a Woman. This has echoes of that film as it evolves into an unexpected romance
of two older people. But there has been a murder committed and Inspector
Lechat (Serge Reggiani) has been assigned the case. But both he and the director
seem more interested for much of the running time in everything but the murder.
It almost becomes a sub-plot in life - just a part of it that emerges from
time to time. More important is food, his daughter, his mistress, his retirement,
a bit of larceny, his dog and a book that he is trying to write. But then
it always comes back to the murder. It gnaws at the back of his head and
he needs to solve it for a good ending for his book. In the meantime though,
have a nice wine, bread and roast beef. As casual a murder mystery as you
will come across and, in the end, a lovely little puzzle when all the pieces
are put in the right place.
The film begins with Madame Richard (Michèle
Morgan) pushing her husband (Jean-Pierre Aumont) out of the window of a high-rise
building. Or so we think for a few seconds until we realize it is just a
fantasy. He is very wealthy and is in the habit of taking on mistresses for
the time it takes to read a book. Now though he tells her that he has found
one he really loves and wants a divorce. She (Valérie Lagrange) is
of course much younger than he is and is a soft-porn actress. He is with
her when he gets a call from his secretary. His wife has taken ill, and he
is needed at home. He rushes off. His maid has gone out for groceries. And
his dead body from a shot to the head is on the floor when we see him next.
A number of paintings are gone. The wife was at the movies.
A puzzling mystery but Lechat feels that
she has to be the killer. But how? He tries to prove that she had time to
leave the theater, drive to her house, kill her husband, steal the paintings
and drive back. And Lelouch takes us on a rather wonderful tour through Paris
as he first tries it with a car and then on a motorcycle with his sleepy-eyed
assistant (Philippe Léotard) who he is trying to get his daughter
interested in. The two trips are camera POV as we zip through the streets
at high speeds avoiding other cars and people. He must have loved the effect
so much that in the next year Lelouch directed C'était un rendez-vous
which is an 8-minute short of a similar drive.
But they can't do it in the time she had
to. The film meanders more - he retires, goes to live on a farm with his
mistress, an ex-prostitute, milks cows and begins to write a book. But he
needs that ending and after a year goes back to questioning Madame Richard
who now has a young lover. He keeps telling her that he knows she did it
- just tell me - I won't report her - and he begins to fall in love with
her. It is Michèle Morgan. She was one of the great French actresses
beginning in the 1930s and over her lengthy career she portrayed Joan of
Arc, Josephine (Napoleon's love) and Marie Antoinette. This feels very French
in plotting and pacing. A slow drink of wine at a sidewalk café on
a sunny spring day. No rush.
