The Bridesmaid

I never understand Claude Chabrol, or, rather, I never find much to understand in Chabrol’s films. His latest “The Bridesmaid (La Demoiselle d’Honneur)” is just one of those films that seems pointless to me. A mad woman madly in love is a time honoured French obsessions. Betty Blue is probably the best know version. The success of this kind of stories lies upon the attractiveness of the main female character. We have to understand the male character’s attraction to such madness. The Bridesmaid lacks precisely this level of attractiveness. The madwoman is just not mad enough and we do not see why anyone would fall in love with her. Failing to make this connection, the whole film feels forced and false. It just seems that everything, every relationships, are just there for no other reason then generic requirements. It is a film with the barest generic formula and nothing else.