The Flower of Evil
Reviewed by Vittorio J. Carli for Reel Movie Critic
HHH
Cast
Nathalie Baye	Anne Charpin-Vasseur
Benoit Magimel	Francois Vasseur
Suzanne Flon	Aunt Micheline Charpin
Directed by Claude Chabrol. A black comedy. No MPAA rating (parents cautioned for mature themes and violence.) Palm Pictures. Running time: 1:45 minutes. In French with English sub-titles.

"The Flower of Evil" is a cynical comedy of manners about a middle class family that has a few too many dark secrets. The outwardly respectable family is involved in duplicity, incest, and even multiple murders. Their secrets surface as the mayoral campaign of one of its elder members, Anne Charpin-Vasseur, gets underway.

This is the 50th film that was directed by Claude Chabrol, one of the most active members of the Nouvelle Vague movement (New Wave in English). He helped to revolutionize and revitalize French cinema in the late 1950s and early 1960s, along with Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut, Agnes Varda, Jacques Rivette, and many others.

Chabrol's works are typically noirish thrillers with some social commentary thrown in. Critics always compare him to Hitchcock, but he was also obviously influenced by Fritz Lang and Henri Georges-Clouzot.

"The Flower of Evil" takes many shots at middle class hypocrisy, but Chabrol has dealt with many of the same themes many times before in better films.

The film contains one of the most unconventional and convoluted relationships ever. Anne's stepson, Francois (Benoit Magimel) has just returned to France after living in the United States for a few years. He left France to get away from the alluring Michele, his step sister/cousin, who is also Anne's daughter. There is a strong romantic bond between Michele and Francois, and their forbidden passion is rekindled shortly after his return.

In addition, Anne and her husband Gerard lost their spouses in the same car accident, and it is suggested that these two may have murdered them.

Even the most likeable character, Aunt Line (wonderfully played by Suzanne Flon) was guilty of collaborating with the Nazis. When a document brings up the family's past indiscretions, it threatens to jeopardize the campaign.

These evil doings produce some macabre humor, but the viewer is left without anyone to sympathize with or care for. This may be what Chabrol intended, but the relentless bleakness of the film gets slightly tiresome at times.

"The Flower of Evil" is not an essential Chabrol work. It does not quite rank with "Le Boucher," "Les Cousins," or "Bad Girls," but it is still worth seeing. The film may not have an immediate strong impact on the viewer, but "The Flower of Evil" will eventually grow on you if you have a fertile imagination.