Region: 0
Country of Release: United Kingdom
Country of Origin: France
Distrubutor: Arrow Films
Pros:- You really never know where the ending is going until you reach it.
- Fantastic cast who are more than capable. No wonder some of them were Chabrol regulars.
- One of the greatest revenge movies ever?
- Audio is great. No real problems and in the original French mono.
Cons:- Ugh. This is the only film in Arrow's Claude Chabrol's Collection to not get a nice anamorphic transfer. Telecine wobble and colours that are more dull than they should be.
- No extras at all. Not even a trailer.
The Film:Claude Chabrol regular Michel Duchaussoy plays Charles Thenier, a single father. Things take a turn for the worse when his only child is involved in a horrendous hit and run accident that unfortunately results in his death. After a long investigation, a chance meeting introduces Charles to Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne), whom he suspects of the unlawful killing of his son. Charles decides that the only way to get even is to take revenge on Paul by infiltrating his family. He does this by faking a love affair with Paul's sister-in-law, Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier) only to discover that Paul's own family despise him in every way. It is through this family hatred in which Charles begins to plot his revenge on Paul. Now then, Que La Bete Meure is a fine psychological thriller that you think can only have one of two endings. Does Charles take revenge on Paul by killing him, or does he let him live with the guilt caused by his idiocy? As the film progresses however, you start to think that another ending is in store. Then another. Then another. A great film made even better for the fact that it is hard to guess the ending (something which is now all to easy at the cinema and can be done in the first 10 minutes of 95% of films). The way that Charle's emotions are shown through excerpts of his diary is another fantastic part of the film. Another film that goes to show why Claude Chabrol deserves to get his own 'range' of DVD's.
The film stars a lot of Chabrol 'regulars' including the aforementioned Michel Duchaussoy and Jean Yanne. Other regulars seen in this film include Mark Di Napoli, Stephane Di Napoli, Louise Chevaliar and Dominique Zardi. All bring in above average performances with Duchaussoy and Yanne in particular, giving this film the great portrayal of revenge that the script and Chabrol give us so well.
If you've never seen a Chabrol film before, I would recommend Que La Bete Meure as a very good starting point and it's good to see that the director is in no way short of work, some 45 years after the start of his career. Admittedly, I've only seen around 7-8 of his films before and almost all of them are pre-1980 but I'd definately like to catch some of his more recent work.
The DVD:Video:I'm not going to lie here. Although the picture isn't bad by a long margin, it's not exactly excellent either. The film has been presented with a non-anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio (or as the rather confusing case calls it: 4:3 Letterbox). Don't get me wrong, although there isn't a huge amount of grain, it is clearly there as is the very occasional telecine wobble. The colours were dull and although I'm sure it's not supposed to be the most colourful film in the world, I'm pretty sure it's not meant to be this bland either. The thing that pains me to say about the picture, is that Arrow have taken the effort to make other films in the collection anamorphic, so why not one of his best received films?
Audio:Only one audio track to report of, but it's the original French Dual Mono track which is a-ok. The audio levels are consistent and dialogue is clear at all times (as are the English subtitles). Due to the film being very dialogue driven this track is as good as you need it to be (though let's be honest, a 5.1 track rarely goes amiss).
Extras:Unfortunately this is the major downfall of the disc. We have been given nothing extras wise (just like other discs in this collection). Not even a trailer. A small featurette about Chabrol would of been nice, or maybe even an audio commentary by a film historian. Hell, even a trailer would've been good.
