By Chlotrudis Independent Film Society
Rating: 3.5 cats
Director: Arnaud Larrieu | Jean-Marie Larrieu
Original language title: L'amour est un crime parfait
Country: france, switzerland
Year: 2014
Running time: 110
IMDB: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt3103576/combined
Bruce says: “LOVE IS THE PERFECT CRIME succeeds largely for two reasons: an excellent cast headed by the able Mathieu Amalric and a moody wintery backdrop of the French Alps exquisitely photographed by Guillaume Deffontaines. Amalric (THE DIVING BELL AND THE BUTTERFLY; KINGS AND QUEEN;THE GRAND BUDAPEST HOTEL; VENUS IN FUR; JIMMY P .; CHICKEN WITH PLUMS; WILD GRASS; MESERINE: KILLER INSTINCT; LA MOUSTACHE is no stranger to most audiences. Here he plays Marc, a writing professor at a local college. A failed writer himself it is unclear whether he teaches to help others avoid his pitfalls or he uses teaching as a convenient vantage point for seducing as many female students as possible. Most people have probably encountered someone like Marc – a man governed by his sex drive to the point of caricature. He, of course, is oblivious to how others see him, largely because his sexual flirtations invariably lead to successful sexual escapades. Like any addict, lying becomes part of his DNA for there are many tracks to cover up.
“The film opens with a particular escapade. Marc is driving one of his students to the chalet he shares with his mentally fragile sister Marianne. Behaving more like a college student than a man of nearly fifty, he sneaks her into his bedroom. At daybreak he realizes something has gone terribly wrong. She isn’t breathing. Marc lives with his sister Marianne (Karin Viard) and she suspects someone is in the house. He firmly denies it. Next, we see Marc traipsing through the woods on his snowshoes; we cannot be sure whether his encounter with his student was real or a dreamlike fantasy. When a girl named Barbara is reported missing, that question is answered.
“Since Barbara was Marc’s student the police arrive at his school for questioning. (The school itself – a beautifully curved, multilayered glass structure – is a delightful character in the film.) Marc appears to be cooperative and offers to contact the lead detective if he thinks of anything that might help crack the case. No sooner have the police left than a beautiful woman named Anna (Maïwenn) arrives identifying herself as Barbara’s stepmother. Barbara’s father is in the military, stationed in secrecy somewhere in Northern Africa. Anna stresses her loneliness and appears to have an interest in Marc that goes beyond concern over her missing stepdaughter. An obvious subtext of incest between Marc and his sister complicates the sequence of events. Marianne is seeing Richard (Denis Podalydès) who is Marc’s department head; this makes Marc insanely jealous. When Anna arrives at the chalet under the pretense of giving Marc a notebook of Barbara’s, Marianne becomes the jealous one. Ann (Sara Forestier), another of Marc’s students, begins to pursue Marc relentlessly.
“Complex games are at play: three women are now vying for Marc’s attention and several others seem to be clocking Marc’s every move. Marc is so charming and self-convincing that one almost begins to suspect he could be innocent. Are the police equally deceived? And does Marianne’s knowledge of her brother’s behavioral patterns make her an accomplice or adversary? The bottom line is that LOVE IS THE PERFECT CRIME is an above average thriller. Attempts to over psychoanalyze the characters and turn the film into a psychological drama fall a bit flat, however. What’s wrong with a good thriller? 3.5 cats
“(LOVE IS THE PERFECT CRIME screened at the 2014 Rendezvous with French Cinema festival at the Film Society of Lincoln Center.)”