Lucybespro It is a performances centric movie

Kidskycom It's funny watching the elements come together in this complicated scam. On one hand, the set-up isn't quite as complex as it seems, but there's an easy sense of fun in every exchange.

pointyfilippa The movie runs out of plot and jokes well before the end of a two-hour running time, long for a light comedy.

Payno I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Maz Murdoch (asda-man) "The Unfaithful Wife" is the very definition of the word "slow-burner" this means that if you enjoy fast paced, big budget, high concept films packed full of decapitations, fast car chases and thrilling pursuits then this is not for you. However, if you're like me and do enjoy all of those things but also appreciate brilliant direction and cinematography and replace a body count with atmosphere and tension now and again then I think that you should really admire the well crafted work done here by the brilliant Chabrol.Not a lot happens in "The Unfaithful Wife" as it is centred around one thing, a marriage in despair and a jealous husband, however like other great films it manages to remain gripping and masterful. I really liked the idea of the story and Chabrol plays it out in a Hitchcock fashion, although I find Hitchcock quite overrated and only really enjoying "Psycho" but Chabrol pans the story out in a suspense fashion and when the husband does murder his wife's lover it has a fabulous realism about it. The tension remains high and the suspense is bursting through the roof! but, unlike my family, you have to be willing to look out for brilliant directing techniques.The cinematography is excellent, it captures the central characters and the breaking down of the marriage very intensely, adding to the gripping nature of the film. Chabrol has crafted something quite brilliant here and although it might not be as good as his others like "The Beast Must Die" it still has a fantastic realism about it. Give it a go!

MisterWhiplash Claude Chabrol is a director who has a vast (and reputedly hit or miss) career as one of the Cashiers du cinema alumni, and his film La Femme Infidele could possibly be counted as one of the top crop of his work. There's a control over mis-en-scene, as might be expected (as he puts forth, unexpectedly and hilariously in a song that plays from a car stereo at one point, it's French), that is precise, observant, but also never overtly manipulative- it's almost so held-back emotionally that whenever a character seems to emote it's either through deception or by just the tip of the iceberg seeping through. This makes it all the more powerful, particularly because of how the ending doesn't really resolve anything except that these characters are doomed with each other. "I'm in love with you like mad," says the husband Charles (Michel Bouguet, perfect at that very understated, sincere and almost sinister approach to relating to people, even when seeming to be kidding), as there seems to be a sense of total disaster heading for both of them. But it's more of an existential sort- the law is left most ambiguous of all- and it's that which usually makes the best of dramas in lock-step with cuckolded and cuckolds and the like.If one's already seen Unfaithful, the Adrian Lyne 2002 Hollywood adaptation (not so much remake) of this film, then one already knows certain big pieces of the plot. The important thing though, in comparison with that film, which is still very good in its own right, is that this time we get only suggestions as to why Helene (Stephane Audran, maybe her best performance) is cheating on her bourgeois husband with writer Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet), and this is something that irks at Charles most of all. Idyllic comfort broken to pieces and shoved underneath is the context here, and it's with this that we see as opposed to Lyne's film a look not so much at the super-sexual and eventually melodramatic side of infidelity and the aftermath (albeit just seeing Audran's legs is enough to get some men watching panting), but at complacency in the marriage and parenthood of their only child. Even if the child actor isn't very good at expression (he says "I Hate You" and "I Love You" in the same note), there's always the level of discomfort in seeing the unspoken tension in the scenes with the three of them.And, if for nothing else, La Femme Infidele is a masterpiece of technique. So many shots and angles had me glued to the screen, knowing that there could be no other way to get it right. Surely the script leads much of Chabrol along his paths (the actual moment of murder, however, is an ingenious editing trick), and what isn't there under the surface on screen is assuredly there on the page. But it's safe to put Chabrol on the level of artistry with his new-wave counterparts for shots like the one with Audran lying down on the bed, creeping up ever so slowly, and then cutting to a close-up, the one moment when we see just a slice of conscience. Or when Chabrol gets the emphasis of violence with a quick, simple shot of blood trickling down. Or how he balances out perspective at the house: look as the husband is watching out in the backyard at his wife, her out of focus yet still walking forward as the camera zooms a little more forward. And the last shot- following up on what has been many a decidedly Hitchcokian angle or note put forward, with a contemplative 'Vertigo' shot of mother and son in long-view out of focus. It's one of the saddest ending shots in the history of French movies.It might sound like I'm hyping up this film up a little, but considering how underrated Chabol can be- in comparison to Truffaut and Godard and even Rohmer to an extent (who, by the way, he co-wrote a book about Hitchcock with)- La Femme Infidele deserves to be seen and re-evaluated not just in the context of "ah, it's French, and it's romance and tragedy." To say that it's better than Unfaithful is an understatement, and it's only fault is that, if anything, it could be a little longer.

Camera Obscura THE UNFAITFUL WIFE (Claude Chabrol - France 1968).Claude Chabrol's "La Femme infidèle" is an excellent thriller, or "A Psycho-sexual Study in Murder" as the film was advertised on certain posters, reflecting his cynical disgust against the petty bourgeoisie. Charles Desvallées (Michel Bouquet) becomes suspicious his wife Hélène (Stéphane Audran) is having an affair. Charles hires a private detective who comes up with the name of Victor Pegala (Maurice Ronet) and then goes off to confront his wife's lover. Bouquet and Audran pitch their roles superbly and with an excellent score, Chabrol's cold, cynical dissection of marriage and murder is just as good as anything Hitchcock ever made. Yet, the film has Chabrol's own distinctly detached style, employing different point of view shots, instantly making the viewer part of the couple's troublesome marriage as we uncomfortably watch Stéphane Audran inevitably on her way to be unmasked. Chabrol stages a long scene giving more than a little nod to Hitchcock's PSYCHO. Besides Bouquet who always gives a tongue-in-cheek performance, his charming honey-bunny assistant in his office had me laughing each time she made her appearance. Remade in 2002 with Richard Gere and Diane Lane as UNFAITHFUL.Camera Obscura --- 8/10

writers_reign There are at least two ways of describing this entry: Early Chabrol and/or Vintage Chabrol. Depends on what you mean by love. Chronologically it dates from his early days as writer-director and if you are moved to describe those days as vintage then who am I to argue. Certainly it has Chabrol's signature all over it; the cool, almost passionless behaviour of the principals, the affluent lifestyles usually on the fringes of large cities (in this case Versailles and Neuilly) which could be read by those who have nothing better to do as a metaphor for the leading characters who could be said to exist on the fringes of civilised behaviour. This time around Michel Bouquet is in a well established marriage with Stephane Audran - at one point Audran remarks to their son that he will soon be ten years old - and although he seems to have little interest in sleeping with her, witness his polite rejection of her sexual overtures, he doesn't take too kindly to Maurice Ronet pinch-hitting for him. Having acquired Ronet's address via private heat he pays a social call on his wife's lover and almost as an afterthought brutally kills him whilst discussing the situation as one civilised man to another. Naturally Audran is in the frame yet soon enough the attention switches to Bouquet at which point Audran, realising what has happened, destroys evidence that could help convict Bouquet. Like I said, civilised to a fare-thee-well. Lots of quality on offer here, Writing, Direction, Acting, Photography all up to snuff and beyond. Highly enjoyable.