| THE SWINDLE Director: Claude Chabrol "When you get close to stupidity, you risk being contaminated. The briefcase is the symbol of that contagious stupidity. From the moment it appears, everbody starts thinking about money instead of happiness." Claude Chabrol Some have called Claude Chabrol the French Alfred Hitchcock. But that really doesn't do justice to either. Yes, he does make thrillers, they just don’t hinge on tricking the audience as much as they suggest the possibilities of thrillers. Like Hitchcock though, Chabrol is a psychological filmmaker relying on the narrative nuances of subtle character development to drive the plot forward. In this chilly thriller The Swindle -- his 50th feature-- he teams contemporary star Isabelle Huppert (School of Flesh) and veteran star of over 80 films (!) Michel Serrault (La Cage aux Folles) as small time con artists. Serrault is charming in a goofy way; an irritable loner looking for laughs. Huppert, now aging gracefully, displays her usual cold nonchalant beauty. Together they a have a respectful father/daughter type relationship and pull innocuous little swindles. Then, Huppert hatches a plan with another guy to dupe the old man. Only she doesn’t know that the guy she is planning to join is making his own double cross. Pretty soon everyone involved is planning some kind of con. As in many of Chabrol’s movies there is a psychological ambiguity running throughout the story. Characters are never just good or bad but a combination of both. Yet despite this ambiguity each scene is cleanly shot with no dark shadows or eschewed angles as one gets used to in American crime drama. Usually, Chabrol uses this effect as a counterpoint to shock the audience with abrupt and disturbing violence, but perhaps age has tempered him a bit because there is nothing excruciatingly violent here. Instead all the crooked deals are lightweight and don’t seem too mean spirited. Besides the solid performances the movie should be seen for its precise direction and light charm. It’s the kind of movie where the ‘real’ bad guy uses humorous threatening lines like; 'Shut up or I’ll pack your ass with dynamite.' - Matt Langdon |