A Comedy of Power
Y
Feb 21, 2006
BERLIN -- "A Comedy of Power" has a joke built into its title. While the film is no comedy, the point of view from veteran French auteur Claude Chabrol is essentially comic: He sees a clash of power between an investigating French magistrate and corporate executives and politicians grabbing money by misappropriating public funds as an adolescent pissing contest. Everyone thinks he or she holds ultimate power, but Chabrol -- who, after all, as the movie's director is the real power here -- strips away the privileges and responsibilities of the "powerful" to reveal people unable to control even their own lives.
The movie is too parochial for a wide audience. The French judicial system is totally alien to Americans, for instance, plus the film is a talkathon. There are hints in Matthieu Chabrol's Hitchcock-like musical themes -- yes, that's the director's son -- and in moments of extreme paranoia exhibited by characters that a thriller lurks just beneath the surface. If it does, it never appears.
Instead audiences must contend with a soundtrack jammed with dialogue, yet little of what's said about money laundering, corporate restructuring, real estate deals, stock funds and Swiss bank accounts means anything. All that matters lies in the tone of voice and look in the eyes. Consequently, there will be a limited theatrical audience for this seventh collaboration between Chabrol and his star, Isabella Huppert, in North America. Even in Europe, this is art house fare.
Huppert plays a headstrong, relentless examining judge, who according to French law holds unassailable powers. Even in her first scene, it's clear that power has gone to her head.
A pompous though nervous chairman of a major corporation, Humeau (Francois Berleand), is unceremoniously arrested as he exits his Paris office building. He is thrown into prison without concern for his mighty position. The next day, the police drag him before Judge Jeanne Charmant (Huppert) without her even allowing him medicine for a skin allergy.
By the time this first interrogation has finished, our sympathies have switched. Humeau might be a rascal, but we feel sorry for anyone who comes up against the "piranha" judge. Those sympathies extend to her husband, Philippe (Robin Renucci), a medical lab technician who feels power in the household shifted long ago despite the fact he comes from wealth while she was practically the family maid before he married her.
A crafty businessman, Sibaud (Patrick Bruel), supplies Jeanne with leads to investigate charges of embezzlement and misuse of funds in this corporation in the mistaken belief he can control her. The same goes for people up the line of power from a powerful senator to the chief judge. She cuts everyone down to size and loves doing it. Even pairing Jeanne with a fellow female judge (Maryline Canto) doesn't work -- indeed it doubles the women's power.
Perhaps Chabrol isn't talking so much about power struggles as the voracious appetite for control and authority by rampaging feminists. Certainly men are portrayed here as losing the battle of the sexes. Badly. The only redemptive male is Jeanne's husband's nephew Felix (Thomas Chabrol, and yes, this is another of the director's sons). This easygoing bourgeois slacker makes a comic contrast to Jeanne's workaholism.
The movie sags in the middle. Even an acrimonious split between the judge and her husband doesn't raise the emotional stakes because love appears to have gone out of this relationship long ago. More puzzling, a drastic act by the distraught husband and a maneuver that removes the judge from the case lead to no epiphanies for Jeanne. She just doesn't understand that power can be an illusion. When the movie ends on a flat note, it causes one to realize how few high notes it ever achieved.
"A Comedy of Power" is somewhat typical of recent efforts by the great French director -- natural lighting, real locations, well-upholstered decors, veteran actors at home with reams of dialogue and a narrative that favors thought over action and behavior over emotion.
A COMEDY OF POWER
Aliceleo/France 2 Cinema/Ajoz Films/Integral Filmwith the participation of Canal Plus
Credits:
Director: Claude Chabrol
Screenwriters: Odile Barski, Claude Chabrol
Producer: Patrick Godeau
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Francoise Benoit-Fresco
Music: Mathieu Chabrol
Costumes: Mic Cheminal
Editor: Monique Fardoulis
Cast:
Jeanne Charmant: Isabelle Huppert
Humeau: Francois Berleand
Sibaud: Patrick Bruel
Philippe Charmant: Robin Renucci
Erika: Maryline Canto
Felix: Thomas Chabrol
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 111 minutes
The movie is too parochial for a wide audience. The French judicial system is totally alien to Americans, for instance, plus the film is a talkathon. There are hints in Matthieu Chabrol's Hitchcock-like musical themes -- yes, that's the director's son -- and in moments of extreme paranoia exhibited by characters that a thriller lurks just beneath the surface. If it does, it never appears.
Instead audiences must contend with a soundtrack jammed with dialogue, yet little of what's said about money laundering, corporate restructuring, real estate deals, stock funds and Swiss bank accounts means anything. All that matters lies in the tone of voice and look in the eyes. Consequently, there will be a limited theatrical audience for this seventh collaboration between Chabrol and his star, Isabella Huppert, in North America. Even in Europe, this is art house fare.
Huppert plays a headstrong, relentless examining judge, who according to French law holds unassailable powers. Even in her first scene, it's clear that power has gone to her head.
A pompous though nervous chairman of a major corporation, Humeau (Francois Berleand), is unceremoniously arrested as he exits his Paris office building. He is thrown into prison without concern for his mighty position. The next day, the police drag him before Judge Jeanne Charmant (Huppert) without her even allowing him medicine for a skin allergy.
By the time this first interrogation has finished, our sympathies have switched. Humeau might be a rascal, but we feel sorry for anyone who comes up against the "piranha" judge. Those sympathies extend to her husband, Philippe (Robin Renucci), a medical lab technician who feels power in the household shifted long ago despite the fact he comes from wealth while she was practically the family maid before he married her.
A crafty businessman, Sibaud (Patrick Bruel), supplies Jeanne with leads to investigate charges of embezzlement and misuse of funds in this corporation in the mistaken belief he can control her. The same goes for people up the line of power from a powerful senator to the chief judge. She cuts everyone down to size and loves doing it. Even pairing Jeanne with a fellow female judge (Maryline Canto) doesn't work -- indeed it doubles the women's power.
Perhaps Chabrol isn't talking so much about power struggles as the voracious appetite for control and authority by rampaging feminists. Certainly men are portrayed here as losing the battle of the sexes. Badly. The only redemptive male is Jeanne's husband's nephew Felix (Thomas Chabrol, and yes, this is another of the director's sons). This easygoing bourgeois slacker makes a comic contrast to Jeanne's workaholism.
The movie sags in the middle. Even an acrimonious split between the judge and her husband doesn't raise the emotional stakes because love appears to have gone out of this relationship long ago. More puzzling, a drastic act by the distraught husband and a maneuver that removes the judge from the case lead to no epiphanies for Jeanne. She just doesn't understand that power can be an illusion. When the movie ends on a flat note, it causes one to realize how few high notes it ever achieved.
"A Comedy of Power" is somewhat typical of recent efforts by the great French director -- natural lighting, real locations, well-upholstered decors, veteran actors at home with reams of dialogue and a narrative that favors thought over action and behavior over emotion.
A COMEDY OF POWER
Aliceleo/France 2 Cinema/Ajoz Films/Integral Filmwith the participation of Canal Plus
Credits:
Director: Claude Chabrol
Screenwriters: Odile Barski, Claude Chabrol
Producer: Patrick Godeau
Director of photography: Eduardo Serra
Production designer: Francoise Benoit-Fresco
Music: Mathieu Chabrol
Costumes: Mic Cheminal
Editor: Monique Fardoulis
Cast:
Jeanne Charmant: Isabelle Huppert
Humeau: Francois Berleand
Sibaud: Patrick Bruel
Philippe Charmant: Robin Renucci
Erika: Maryline Canto
Felix: Thomas Chabrol
No MPAA rating
Running time -- 111 minutes
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