LA FLEUR DU MAL
THE FLOWER OF EVIL |
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Director:
Claude Chabrol
Screenplay: Claude Chabrol & Caroline Eliacheff
Cast:
Anne: Nathalie Baye
François: Benoît Magimel
Aunt Line: Suzanne Flon
Gérard: Bernard Le Coq
Michèle: Mélanie Doutey
Matthieu: Thomas Chabrol
Running time: 104 minutes
Year of production: France - 2003
Rating: Restricted (brief language)
Gauge: 35mm, DVD (color)
Distributor: New Yorker Films
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“Stylish,
ingenious and gleaming with charm, wit and malice, it's
another expert blend of domestic drama and crime thriller,
a vivisection of the bourgeoisie.” Michael Wilmington
| Chicago Tribune |
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In La Fleur
du Mal, Claude Chabrol once again takes on the themes
of guilt and redemption. Set in the Bordeaux region, the film
centers on the intricate and complex family relations of the
Charpin-Vasseurs, a wealthy bourgeois family. François
loves Michèle, his beautiful cousin who is also his
step-sister, and perhaps, his real sister. Anne, Michèle’s
mother, is running for mayor to the dismay of her philandering
husband Gérard, who owns the local pharmacy. The incestuous
affair seems to be the only innocent relationship. The family
is plagued by hate, cheating, bitterness, egoism, and death.
In addition, the Charpin-Vasseurs carry the heavy burden of
having a grandfather who collaborated with the Nazis and who
may have been murdered by Aunt Line. This secret haunts the
family as malicious flyers exposing the family’s past
are distributed all over town. Nevertheless, Anne wins the
election… but a tragedy strikes the family once more
- another crime is committed. La Fleur du Mal is a
satire of the bourgeoisie - Anne with her twin-set, pearl
necklace, silk scarf, high-pitched voice and great expectations,
is irresistible.
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| PHOTO New
Yorker Films |
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