La Femme Infidele, otherwise known as 'The Unfaithful Wife' is the first Claude Chabrol film I have ever seen. I was aware that Chabrol was known as 'the French Hitchcock' which made me want to watch one of his movies even more. There has also been a more recent adaptation of this film copied almost identically which I am sure most viewers will prefer to this one. However not me. I found the modern one sterile and unfeeling whilst this one was exciting, very well acted and far more classy. The story sort of does what it says on the tin, centring round a beautiful but bored housewife who starts becoming very friendly with another man when her husband is slaving away at the office. Before long however the husband starts to think that all is not well and gets a private investigator to follow his wife's movements during the day. When his fears are confirmed he doesn't fly into a rage with his wife, in fact he doesn't even tell her that he knows,having his own course of revenge planned out, and what happens next is brilliant to the extreme. The film is amazingly alike to Hitchcock, same mood, same style, but just a bit more passionate and chic which could only be possible from the films being filmed in France. Stephane Audran is obviously Chabrol's leading lady just as Grace Kelly or Tippi Hedren are Hitchcock's and I will be interested to see more of her work.
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