Cinema: Feline Frisson

Melodrama is alive and well in Paris. La Femme Infidèle is a smooth, elegant, feline exercise in psychological suspense, devoted to the proposition that the old formulas, if not the best, are still more entertaining than most.

Director Claude Chabrol, a disciple of Hitchcock, shoots more for nuance than frisson. It is his wily variations on a hoary theme that give La Femme Infidèle its own small distinction. A wealthy Parisian insurance man (Michel Bouquet) takes casual note that his supple young wife (Stephane Audran) acts rather nervous when he interrupts her on the telephone. He engages a private detective to follow...

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