BELLAMY .World Cinema

Inspired by novelist Georges Simenon’s beloved Jules Maigret character, master French New Wave director Claude Chabrol has his first collaboration with Gerard Depardieu. Police investigator Bellamy (Depardieu, in one of his finest roles) is on holiday with his loving wife Francoise (Marie Bunel), who may or may not have stumbled onto a murder mystery case. The reluctant yet curious Bellamy can’t resist investigating Noel Gentil (Jacques Gamblin), who claims to have “sort of” killed a man for an insurance scam, just as he can’t help but be infuriated by the sudden arrival of his alcoholic, gambling mess of a half-brother, Jacques (Clovis Cornillac) As usual, Chabrol is less interested in the whodunit as in exploring his characters’ hypocrisies and motivations, and-as a W.H. Auden poem at the end of the film reminds us-appearances that deceive. Though posing as a crime thriller, Chabrol’s film is actually a sharp-witted study of unresolved familial jealousy and anger.