La Rupture

The overwrought opening scene, which would be more suitable for a sci-fi/horror B-movie, serves Chabrol as a jumping-off point for another caustic psycho(patho)logical study, this time limited mainly by the space of a particular boarding house where people come and go like people visiting the post office. No one is a saint, especially those who live beyond their means. The sharing of information isn’t managed with directorial sympathy for any of the characters,  but based solely on the requirement of the conveyed message about the corruptibility and mendacity of the human race. The tension in the narrative is rooted in the inconstancy of the roles that the characters are forced to portray to those around them. The central victim of the conspiracy was given the least opportunity to express himself. The cynical Chabrol is more interested in the process of forming lies and spreading superstitions than the feelings of the mother in danger. A film about the investigation of the crime(s) committed in the introduction is thus absurdly turned into a film about committing a different crime. The misuse of the initial situation to somewhat deceive the viewer is directly related to the previously mentioned lack of sympathy, without which it is easy to bend the rules of the genre. However, Chabrol isn’t imaginatively cunning enough to make the contrived plot a strength of the film. The problem is that if we leave aside the plot, which is cheaply shocking and sensationally stupid in the last third, all that The Breach has in reserve is a few minor jokes in the mise-en-scéne and the acting of the typically miscast Stephane Audran with her roughly five expressions. 50% (20.08.2012)