Hühnchen in Essig (1985)

Hühnchen in Essig: Directed by Claude Chabrol. With Jean Poiret, Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, Jean Topart. In a small provincial French town, Dr Morasseau, Mr Lavoisier and butcher Filiol decide to create a significant estate business but Mrs Cuno and her son Louis do not want to sell their house. Louis presumably provokes the death of Filiol.

“An early scene in u0026quot;Cop au Vinu0026quot; (or u0026quot;Poulet au vinaigreu0026quot;) features a petulant Mommyu0026#39;s boy, a domineering mother and a cellar. Sound familiar? However, this is Chabrol and not Hitchcock though you may say thatu0026#39;s the next best thing. u0026quot;Cop au Vinu0026quot; may not be in the front rank of Chabrol movies but this excellent account of typically well-heeled Chabrolians doing nasty things to each other will do very nicely indeed.u003cbr/u003eu003cbr/u003eNaturally Stephane Audran is here; sheu0026#39;s the domineering mother, this time confined to a wheelchair, and about to be evicted from her home by those nasty rich people. Lucas Belvaux is the petulant son and others in the cast include the wonderful Michel Bouquet, Jean Topart, Pauline Lafont and Jean Poiret as the very unorthodox inspector brought in to investigate a couple of mysterious deaths. There may not be anything profoundly engaging or even particularly memorable about the picture but it remains a highly enjoyable thriller and is certainly no disgrace to the names of either Chabrol or his mentor, Mr Hitchcock.”