Style Over Substance 7 I think Chabrol's decision to opt for the comedic in his sleuth in "Masques" undermines what might have been a much better and stronger movie. One of the big deficits it creates is the silencing of Roland's sister, Madeleine who, since she's central to his risk-taking, devoted work, and plotting, is the motivating force of his investigation. In fact his pursuit of justice for her demonstrates real and pretty remarkable devotion, and a love which should make her death pivotal to the film.
So, how is it that Chabrol's lengthy ending vanishes her? Shouldn't her presence, in terms of justice done, have taken center stage. What we get instead is a way over the top cynical confession and a featherweight romance, which is not even in line with the film's own content.
Why not end with Catherine bravely and independently testifying at Christian Legagnier's trial rather than all fluff in the arms of her friend's brother. Why can't she stand on her own on behalf of a murdered woman whose life she shared as an inmate in a bluebeard asylum which is run by the very man she can now finally destroy. Why can't her gagged life end in speech? Sisterhood is what the movie cries out for, but what we get is sister-in-law-hood with the mediator being the rather feckless brother who has nothing to offer but a nerdy smile and a Hollywood embrace, and who played chess with her tyrant while her own life was nearly being snuffed out in a junkyard--perhaps the same destruction that Madeleine experienced.
An actual trial would also mean the victory of justice and reason over all the lustful and greedy emotion that the movie spirals into as we are taken from a bourgeois estate to a bluebeard dungeon. The actual ending is just more of the grotesque--a grossly staged drama, and a sugar-coated love, both of which are totally unconvincing in terms of the movie's actual development. Catherine's victory is not for her at all, although she does certainly deserve it, but for the extension of her own dependency on males. In fact, one must ask oneself in the end, whether Roland Wolf and Christian Legagnier were but members of a joint enterprise for property control? In any case, nothing resolves properly and worst of all Madeleine is disappeared forever.
So, how is it that Chabrol's lengthy ending vanishes her? Shouldn't her presence, in terms of justice done, have taken center stage. What we get instead is a way over the top cynical confession and a featherweight romance, which is not even in line with the film's own content.
Why not end with Catherine bravely and independently testifying at Christian Legagnier's trial rather than all fluff in the arms of her friend's brother. Why can't she stand on her own on behalf of a murdered woman whose life she shared as an inmate in a bluebeard asylum which is run by the very man she can now finally destroy. Why can't her gagged life end in speech? Sisterhood is what the movie cries out for, but what we get is sister-in-law-hood with the mediator being the rather feckless brother who has nothing to offer but a nerdy smile and a Hollywood embrace, and who played chess with her tyrant while her own life was nearly being snuffed out in a junkyard--perhaps the same destruction that Madeleine experienced.
An actual trial would also mean the victory of justice and reason over all the lustful and greedy emotion that the movie spirals into as we are taken from a bourgeois estate to a bluebeard dungeon. The actual ending is just more of the grotesque--a grossly staged drama, and a sugar-coated love, both of which are totally unconvincing in terms of the movie's actual development. Catherine's victory is not for her at all, although she does certainly deserve it, but for the extension of her own dependency on males. In fact, one must ask oneself in the end, whether Roland Wolf and Christian Legagnier were but members of a joint enterprise for property control? In any case, nothing resolves properly and worst of all Madeleine is disappeared forever.