Dir.
Claude Chabrol, 2004, France/Germany/Italy, 111 mins approx, subtitles
Cast:
Benoît Magimel, Laura Smet, Aurore Clément , Bernard Le Coq, Solène Bouton, Anna Mihalcea, Michel Duchaussoy, Suzanne Flou, Eric Seigne
Based on a novel by Ruth Rendell, The Bridesmaid tells the story of Philippe (Benoît Magimel), a young salesman who lives with his mother (Aurore Clément) and two sisters, Sophie and Patricia (played by Solène Bouton and Anna Mihalcea respectively). At Sophie's wedding, Philippe meets a bridesmaid named Senta, a mysterious young woman who is infatuated with Philippe almost from first time she sees him. Senta lives in the basement of a huge house, doesn't seem to work, barely ventures out of her home and concocts lies about her life. She may be a free spirit with no sense of responsibility, but her behaviour is unsettling and off-putting rather than kooky and endearing. Nevertheless, Philippe responds to Senta's declaration of love for him and their relationship quickly develops into an obsessive desire to be with each other. Then one day, Senta proposes a love pact, whereby Philippe must kill someone to prove his love for her. Knowing that Senta frequently lies to him about elements of her life, he brushes this request off as a joke. But is this simply another of Senta's games or is she serious?
Claude Chabrol adopts a straightforward and unfussy style in The Bridesmaid, and the film is deliberately paced rather languidly. Some people may find this leisurely paced drama unengaging, but this slow development of the characters and the mystery around Senta does gradually start to unnerve. What's lacking though is any real sense of suspense or surprise. Surely Philippe wouldn't be as trusting as he seems to be of Senta when it's clear that she lies about her life and is irresponsible? Then again, Philippe is not the straightforward protagonist that we think he is. Seemingly obsessed with a small statue, a marble head of a woman that belongs to his mother, Philippe wanders around as if living in his own world, which explains his attraction to the similarly inclined, but more extreme, Senta. Nevertheless, Philippe's reverence toward the statue is arguably just as creepy as Senta's unpredictable and troubling behaviour. Philippe may think that Senta is lying and joking half of the time, but he's so infatuated with her that he can't work out the truth about her, or look at his situation objectively. Along with Philippe's obsession with the statue, there's also the relationship between him and his mother, that's just as intriguing as his story with Senta, and which suggests that Philippe is just as troubled in his own way as Senta is.
Chabrol's films are not like typical mainstream thrillers that jump from one set piece to another, and The Bridesmaid doesn't contain any conventionally thrilling scenes in the commonly understood sense. Chabrol is less interested in the narrative motor of the film and the twists and turns of the plot, and more fascinated by how a terrible crime like murder changes comfortably well off people who would never believe that they would find themselves in such a situation. We, along with the character who becomes inadvertently involved in the crime, can only stand by and watch as their carefully ordered world unravels around them. Chabrol is well known for being a devout follower of the films of Alfred Hitchcock, as well as a maker of Hitchcockian thrillers, and Chabrol's films often wade into murky moral waters that are similar to the dilemmas faced by characters in Hitchcock's films. Although Chabrol has tackled a Ruth Rendell story before in La Cérémonie (1995), what's striking about The Bridesmaid is its similarity to Hitchcock's classic film Strangers On A Train , which also featured an innocent man caught up in a bizarre double murder pact with a dangerously seductive individual. But The Bridesmaid doesn't feel derivative and is recognisably a Chabrol film, with it's deliberately slow pacing, and detailed and objective view of events. It may not be engaging for people expecting a complicated murder mystery film, but as a study of a young man's obsession with a mysterious woman, this is a compelling and intriguing film.
Martyn Bamber
© Martyn Bamber, May 2005
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