Saturday, October 15, 2011

Merci Pour Le Chocolat - 2000 ***



I was totally disappointed in this. Mainly because I have become such a big fan of Chabrol's work which is nearly always superb, and so for this to be below average was a big shock.

The only positive to the movie was that Isabelle Huppert was astounding and I could barely take my eyes off her when she was in shot, but that alone couldn't save this.

The story centres around Huppert and her husband and son. Her husband is a famous piano player (in French films there seem to be a lot of people who are piano players, especially in some kind of suspense thriller) and Huppert is the heiress to a Chocolate Factory.

One day an aspiring pianist has lunch with her mother, her male friend and his mother, and finds out that she was nearly switched as a newborn in hospital by Huppert's husband. Although her mother brushes it off she becomes paranoid that she is in fact the famous pianist's daughter (despite him having a son), and around about the same time, Huppert decides that she cannot have an extended member in her family.

As I said, Huppert is really the best thing going here, and although it is suspenseful it is no way near as good as some of Chabrol's earlier work (i.e 'Le Boucher') which was a great shame. However I shall strive to continue my search with watching his films.

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