Customer Reviews

Betty

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

Based on one of Georges Simenon's "psychological novels," Claude Chabrol's Betty begins with the title character (Marie Trintingnat) walking into a bar where she picks up a man. They head to a bar near Versailles called "The Hole," a gathering of lost souls where Betty strikes a friendship with Laure (the superb Stephane Audran), a middle-aged woman involved with the bar's owner. Laure takes Betty to spend a couple of days in her hotel and, as the friendship develops, we find out through flashbacks, presented in a fragmented manner and without chronological order, what happened in Betty's life that culminated with her tramping around bars in Paris. (It's all related to sex.)

Chabrol's film is fascinating if you enjoy character studies, but beware that the film exposes Betty's character without ever passing judgment on her or fully explaining her motivations or even the real reasons behind Betty and Laure's friendship. You also need to be patient with the film's structure, since it takes practically until the very end for the flashbacks to make sense as a whole, and even then there are intentional gaps in terms of character motivation. However, Chabrol is in top form in this film, and the acting is excellent, with the two female leads providing strong performances.

This seems to me to be rather a wonderful film from the later part of Chabrol's oeuvre, and stands far above other films he made from that period for me. It is a very 'down' story about two alcoholics but the actresses in question - Marie Trintignant and Stephane Audran - are both so brilliant that the film takes on a greater stature than it would otherwise have, going beyond a genre piece based on a Simenon story to become something really moving. Audran is sublime in a way that makes you feel how underused she has been since the early days with Chabrol, her presence on screen is so compelling, and Trintignant captures the pathos and vulnerability of her character in a way that is totally heartbreaking.

There are absolutely no surprises, no twists and turns in this film...I even watched portions a second time, thinking I may have missed something, some hidden evil or some tragic flaw. Well, the leading character is alcoholic and sleeps around...but the events and supposed causes are simply ho-hum and not very interesting, and the ending is saccharine. I'm glad that I only rented this...instead, see Claude Chabrol's Story Of Women, The Bridesmaid, or La Ceremonie for great character study, drama, and suspense.

1/2 star for the cinematography, 1/2 star for the editing, and 1 star for the late Marie Trintignant.
I am a fan of most films by director Claude Chabrol, but this was very disappointingly static to me, as Hollywoodian screenplays go (and this, French as it might be, is Hollywoodian cinema after all).
Watch two girls talk, get laid and drink ridiculous quantities of liquor... And watch Stephane Audran sit and try to look sincere (or sincerely insincere) for a good portion of footage... Some other actors are pretty bad and uninvolved also...
Masterful, but formally only. But Chabrol is very proud of it, so maybe this is ill-advised for you.