Connecting Rooms - 1970 ***

Hard going and bleak, but also tender and bittersweet, 'Connecting Rooms' merges two great stars (albeit past their prime) in the form of lonely neighbours staying in an imposing and cold boarding house. Bette Davis is the wannabe star who has great dreams for herself but whose real life is sadly different, and Michael Redgrave is a schoolteacher who has a strange secret about why he left his previous post.
The characters in the house are all quirky and individual but at the same time are united in their hunger for acceptance.

(HORROR) And Soon the Darkness - 1970 ***

The poster was actually the thing that drew me to this film. As well as the fact that I'm really into 60s and 70s horror.

The story is of 2 British girls who go on a cycling holiday to France. Whilst they are there, the girls have an argument and fall out. This ends up in them going off their separate ways.

One of the girls feels guilty and decides to cycle to a cafe along the road and wait for her friend to appear. But she never does. And sooner or later she realises that her friend has vanished. She then meets an assortment of weird characters, each of whom it's hard to know whether to trust them or not and tries to get to the bottom of the mystery, with some terrifying results.

The film has a very eerie feel about it, but some of it was a bit annoying and the remaining girl is the most irritating character ever. Flouncing around in her stupid pink hotpants and ridiculous haircut got a bit tiring after a while.

La Rapture (The Breach) 1970 ****

I've never heard of this Chabrol film, and was blown away as usual. Chabrol is back on form. Or rather, his 1970s movies show him at his peak.

Stephane Audran is yet again the star, totally captivating and mesmerising the audience.

She stars as Helen, who runs away from home with her son after her mentally ill husband attacks them both one morning.

Leaving him in the care of a hospital, she rents a room in a boarding house across the road and meets the strange assortment of people staying there whilst waiting to obtain a divorce. Her husband goes back to live with his wealthy and manipulative parents who think that they can buy Helen's son with their money . They then hire a distant family friend to help them effectively 'get the dirt' on Helen to prove that she is not fit to look after her son.

The story is bizarre, surreal and everything you would expect a Chabrol to be. 1970s France has never looked so edgy and exciting.