Both Huppert and Chabrol are prolific and last year they worked together yet again on a movie light years ahead of this one but when one is prolific one is playing the percentages and winds up with a high chaff to wheat ratio as both have done here. Perhaps most risible is the scene towards the end that appears to be Chabrol's version of the heroine walking the corridors of the Gothic castle at three in the morning wearing only a negligee and armed only with a candle in the full knowledge that there are murderers, maniacs, vampires, perm any one from three, on the loose. Chabrol's take on this is to have a young girl volunteer to drive the car of her hostess along a winding road at night in the full knowledge that the hostess has drugged her drink. Realistically all she had to do was let the hostess, Huppert, drive herself to the pharmacy to collect a prescription, or even, if it comes to that, let the chauvinistic husband (Dutronc) pick up his own prescription. This is but one in a series of plot holes that may well be symbolised by the cobweb shawl Huppert is knitting throughout. Children swapped at birth (well, it was good enough for Shakespeare, Chabrol may argue), one of them the child of a forensic lab owner with a boyfriend working there, so convenient for testing possible toxins the spider-woman may be lacing the drinks with. More? How about this: confronted by a strange girl who claims she may be his daughter Dutronc goes from 'you must be mad' to 'come and play a little four-hand piano with me' in minutes.The colors are of that strangely muted type that Chabrol seems to have made his own, the two young actors clearly came in a flat-pack from IKEA and there's a lack of interaction throughout. Isabelle Huppert's Mika runs the gamut from cold-blooded murderess to charming hostess hitting all the stops along the way whilst Jacques Dutronc appropriately turns in a Johnny-One-Note performance. Not one that either Chabrol or Huppert would want to feature prominently on their CVs.

As most French movies, there is more emphasis in the interpersonal relations than action. An interesting plot develops and it seems to have a lot of potential. Unfortunately it leads to a very predictable outcome.Maybe the American remake will capitalize on this weakness and give us at the end the suspense it could have achieved.I enjoyed the traveling, the destination was disappointing.

Saw this one in an empty cinema on 12th st, NY city last sept. I'd been really looking forward to it; alas this last Chabrol/Huppert cocktail was a real disappointment.The plot centres around a Chabrol favourite, a psychologically anaomalous lead character who changes the otherwise even-keeled bourgeois status quo. But Huppert is (bored!?) too wooden and the editing holds up frames which should be dropped, suggesting a suspense and portence which the acting doesn't give.There is a sinister note to the plot and the acting that executes it, but everything falls flat scene by scene. Watch the film perhaps for Anna Mouglalis' pleasant but iconoclastic Jeanne who is the true gypsy heart amongst the otherwise uninterested and uninteresting cast. 3/10, really.

Once again the intoxicatingly beautiful, cold, aloof and vaguely hostile Mdme. Huppert delivers a superb performance as a murderess via poisoned chocolate! The Hitchcockesque drama/mystery kept me mesmerized the entire time.