The Cry of the Owl [Le cri du hibou] **** (1987, Christophe Malavoy, Mathilda May, Jacques Penot, Virginie Thévenet, Jean-Pierre Kalfon, Agnès Denèfle) – Classic Movie Review 3549

Director Claude Chabrol’s suspenseful 1987 version of the Patricia Highsmith book is the usual civilised pleasure from him. It is properly dour, dark and brooding in the Highsmith tradition, with an ironic sense of black humour, faithful to the spirit as well as the plot of the author.

Christophe Malavoy stars as architect and artist Robert, who separates from his Parisian wife Véronique (Virginie Thévenet) and moves to Vichy, where he observes the beautiful but unbalanced Juliette (Mathilda May). She spots him, thinks that he is a prowler, confronts him but invites him inside.

Quickly in love with the stranger, she dumps her fiancé Patrick (Jacques Penot) and pursues Robert, making Patrick so jealous that he attacks Robert. Then Patrick disappears and Robert is believed to have killed him but Véronique thinks that she can take revenge.

Jean-Pierre Kalfon plays the police commissioner (Le commissaire), Agnès Denèfle is Suzie, Patrice Kerbrat is Marcello, Victor Garrivier is the doctor and Jean-Claude Lecas is Jacques.

Chabrol and Odile Barski adapt the novel. The screenplay, the acting of an ideal cast, Matthieu Chabrol’s score and Jean Rabier’s camerawork are all first rate.

A new version of the book followed: The Cry of the Owl (2009), with Paddy Considine and Julia Stiles.

© Derek Winnert 2016 Classic Movie Review 3549

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Director Claude Chabrol.