The Bridesmaid-2004

Director Claude Chabrol

Starring Benoit Magimel, Laura Smet

Scott’s Review #548

Reviewed December 14, 2016

Grade: B+

A more modern offering by Claude Chabrol (many of his films were made in the 1960s and 1970s), his 2004 film entitled The Bridesmaid, continues the tradition of compelling, macabre storytelling.

It immerses the viewer in the strange behavior of the central characters as they obsess over each other in one way or another.

The film is in French.

The Bridesmaid contains two plots, one explored fully, the other not explored as much as might have been hoped- the latter being the more interesting of the two.

Philippe is his mother Christine’s only son and the only male in the household. His two other sisters live there as well.

Christine is divorced and works as a hairdresser.

The family is a rather typical one, save for a creepy, incestuous bond between Philippe and Christine, their very romantic conversations, and Philippe’s penchant for carrying around a head statue carved to resemble his mother.

He regularly sleeps with the statue and kisses it on the lips.

As the youngest daughter is to be married, Philippe meets and bonds with one of the bridesmaids, Senta.

The two embark on a torrid love affair and become inseparable. As their love flourishes, Senta becomes obsessed with her undying love for Philippe and asks him to kill a stranger as a way of proving his love for her.

This leads to confusion as Senta kills another character, thinking this is what Philippe wants. Philippe becomes both afraid and titillated by the young girl.

The main plot is very reminiscent of the Hitchcock classic Strangers on a Train (1951), in which one party is bloodthirsty and the other a more innocent victim, yet in Chabrol’s film, the other party suffers from emotional issues of their own.

Senta is unbalanced, and a mysterious figure from her past, Rita, described as her stepmother, appears a few times as she dances with her much younger partner.

A local girl mysteriously disappears early in the film, which may be a red herring or may be related to the events of the film.

I was more intrigued by the mommy/son angle, but perhaps that is Chabrol’s way of confusing the audience. Oddly, the duo has simmering chemistry, yet each character never fesses up to being obsessed with the other.

It is merely implied.

Philippe dislikes Christine’s beau, who figures prominently in the main story of Senta’s machinations, but I wanted more of Christine and Philippe.

Stylistically, The Bridesmaid is dreamy and builds at a slow momentum, similar to Chabrol’s earlier films. We are aware that the story will play out in a strange, interesting fashion, but we do not always know which road Chabrol might take, nor which plot points may or may not be revealed.

Perhaps less developed than some of his fantastic earlier efforts, but a recommended watch for someone in the mood for a morbid, left-of-center story to sink one’s teeth into.

Claude Chabrol is a director I admire greatly for his use of fascinating elements that keep the audience guessing about what is coming next, and that is a joy in itself.