|
"Everything's a secret here," says old Auntie Line in the beginning of The Flower of Evil. Though she's jokingly referring to the lamprey the family will eat for lunch, her words ring true for much more.
The film begins with a dead body. Then, like a French game of Clue, the plot backtracks to explain just how that body came to be dead. The viewer sees that it was in the study, and now must learn the weapon of choice (a butcher knife? The rope? A lamp, perhaps?) and the murderer (hint: it's not Col. Mustard).
The next scene takes us back in time: Young Francois (Benoît Magimel) returns from a three-year stint in America to his native France, moving back in with his family and all of their dirty, little secrets. His journey to Chicago was an escape from his relatives, and the trouble he saw brewing in his future. We see throughout the movie that trouble, be it murder, Nazism, infidelity, lies or cousin-to-cousin snogging, somehow courts this family, and escape is impossible.
There's Francois' father (Bernard Le Coq), a philandering pharmacist with an illegal medical clinic whom no one seems to like, aside from a few sore-throated female clients. His stepmother (Nathalie Baye), who's the target of a smear campaign in her run for mayor. His beautiful half-sister/half cousin (Melanie Doutey), whose love for him (and vice versa) goes beyond their family ties. And his great aunt Line (Suzanne Flon) who was long ago tried and acquitted for the murder of her father (a Nazi collaborator). They all live their upper-crust lives together in a large, clean house that fails to mask the growing strife within. The camera work is masterful, and easily the most spellbinding part of the film. The soundtrack is jolting, and at some points feels like it's hedging towards Hitchcock, but the music never quite fits the mood.
The film (French with English subtitles), by Claude Chabrol has been blasted by some critics as dull. And considering what it does, or doesn't do, with so many twists and the gripping potential the piece has, their point is well taken. The film seems at times aimless, dealing with the past and present family secrets in a light and airy manner that is in some ways comedic. That's the director's intention, and his way of commenting on the ways of the French bourgeoisie, their disconnection to one another, and the ways they fail to hide their dark side. The finished product is a fairly captivating piece, with good dialogue and a decent plot line, alternating between dark, comedic and bizarre.