Claude Chabrol ranks among the French directors who left behind them an impressive crop of movies and his filmography remains wildly uneven. The flicks he directed before Poulet au Vinaigre (1985) and after reflect this irregularity. Le Cheval d'Orgueil (1980) didn't do Pierre Jakez Helias' book justice. Les Fantômes du Chapelier (1982), on the other hand were a solid adaptation of George Simenon's book. But le Sang des Autres (1984) was another failure.
Poulet au Vinaigre is like a return to the director's basics and a strong one to boot. First, the film was shot in a few weeks in the small town of Forges Les Eaux in Normandy at the fall 1984. Secondly, it was shot on a shoestring buget even if it's hardly perceptible on the screen and for the filmmaker it heralded a fruitful partnership with producer Marin Karmitz. Then, Chabrol obviously wished to go back to his favorite theme: to denounce the flaws of the bourgeois world and here, he spectacularly renewed his vision through an innovative narrative process.
Indeed, Poulet au Vinaigre is a small milestone in Chabrol's world in the way it introduces an eccentric character: inspector Lavardin. Although he doesn't appear before the first 45 minutes of the film, his presence is ground-breaking. Using irony as if it flew naturally, he acts as a catalyst in the revelation of corruption that thrives in the middle town. Besides when the prostitute Anna Foscarie (Caroline Cellier) says to the young postman, Louis Cuno (Lucas Delvaux): "get me out of here", it says everything. Besides, Lavardin isn't afraid to use peculiar methods to arrive to his ends and particularly to shatter what lies beneath the hypocrisy of the upper class. The scene, when he beats up the notary Hubert Lavoisier (Michel Bouquet) worths its weight in gold. On the other hand, he even epitomizes a sort of father figure for Louis albeit with once again controversial methods and it's significant that he's the only one to come into Louis' house. At last he has a flair for making some secondary characters much more ambiguous and not so friendly as they seem at first glance like the postwoman Henriette or the bartender Dédé. As Lavardin says to the latter: "one can do everything dude when one is in the police!" Indeed, with him sordid facts are transmuted with a big whiff of weird humor and the whole film looks like a delighting massacre game with a geniune morale.
As one says, you don't change a winning team. So, Chabrol's will to return to what he knows best also expressed through his choice of actors, many of them old hand ones. Stéphane Audran, once Mrs Chabrol works wonders as a possessive, half-mad mother. Caroline Cellier, Jean Poiret's wife brings a touch of lightness in this sultry world whereas Michel Bouquet with his hoarse voice embodies with perfection his role of a corrupt notary. At last, the movie enabled Lucas Belvaux to start a prolific career in French cinema, both as an actor and as a director.
When the film was released, Chabrol was confident in the success the film would garner thanks to Jean Poiret: "when Jean arrived, it was obvious the film was going to perform well". He was intuitive and in the end, the chef Chabrol concocted a delicious cinematographic dish with highly personal ingredients that mesh so well that the result is a gustative pleasure. And if you wish some more, I can easily recommand the sequel Inspecteur Lavardin (1986) as well as the tv mini series, les Dossiers de l'Inspecteur Lavardin broadcast at the tail end of the eighties. At last, congratulations to the English distrbutors who found an equivalent for the translation of the film because "Cop au Vin" is a play on word with a French recipe entiled Coq au Vin.
NB: I live not very far from Forges Les Eaux and I was amused at discovering locations that were used as the back drop of the film like doctor Morasseau's big house and garden that are on the edge of town or the town square.
Poulet au Vinaigre is like a return to the director's basics and a strong one to boot. First, the film was shot in a few weeks in the small town of Forges Les Eaux in Normandy at the fall 1984. Secondly, it was shot on a shoestring buget even if it's hardly perceptible on the screen and for the filmmaker it heralded a fruitful partnership with producer Marin Karmitz. Then, Chabrol obviously wished to go back to his favorite theme: to denounce the flaws of the bourgeois world and here, he spectacularly renewed his vision through an innovative narrative process.
Indeed, Poulet au Vinaigre is a small milestone in Chabrol's world in the way it introduces an eccentric character: inspector Lavardin. Although he doesn't appear before the first 45 minutes of the film, his presence is ground-breaking. Using irony as if it flew naturally, he acts as a catalyst in the revelation of corruption that thrives in the middle town. Besides when the prostitute Anna Foscarie (Caroline Cellier) says to the young postman, Louis Cuno (Lucas Delvaux): "get me out of here", it says everything. Besides, Lavardin isn't afraid to use peculiar methods to arrive to his ends and particularly to shatter what lies beneath the hypocrisy of the upper class. The scene, when he beats up the notary Hubert Lavoisier (Michel Bouquet) worths its weight in gold. On the other hand, he even epitomizes a sort of father figure for Louis albeit with once again controversial methods and it's significant that he's the only one to come into Louis' house. At last he has a flair for making some secondary characters much more ambiguous and not so friendly as they seem at first glance like the postwoman Henriette or the bartender Dédé. As Lavardin says to the latter: "one can do everything dude when one is in the police!" Indeed, with him sordid facts are transmuted with a big whiff of weird humor and the whole film looks like a delighting massacre game with a geniune morale.
As one says, you don't change a winning team. So, Chabrol's will to return to what he knows best also expressed through his choice of actors, many of them old hand ones. Stéphane Audran, once Mrs Chabrol works wonders as a possessive, half-mad mother. Caroline Cellier, Jean Poiret's wife brings a touch of lightness in this sultry world whereas Michel Bouquet with his hoarse voice embodies with perfection his role of a corrupt notary. At last, the movie enabled Lucas Belvaux to start a prolific career in French cinema, both as an actor and as a director.
When the film was released, Chabrol was confident in the success the film would garner thanks to Jean Poiret: "when Jean arrived, it was obvious the film was going to perform well". He was intuitive and in the end, the chef Chabrol concocted a delicious cinematographic dish with highly personal ingredients that mesh so well that the result is a gustative pleasure. And if you wish some more, I can easily recommand the sequel Inspecteur Lavardin (1986) as well as the tv mini series, les Dossiers de l'Inspecteur Lavardin broadcast at the tail end of the eighties. At last, congratulations to the English distrbutors who found an equivalent for the translation of the film because "Cop au Vin" is a play on word with a French recipe entiled Coq au Vin.
NB: I live not very far from Forges Les Eaux and I was amused at discovering locations that were used as the back drop of the film like doctor Morasseau's big house and garden that are on the edge of town or the town square.