Product Details

• Actors: Anémone, Richard Bohringer, Nicole Garcia, Christophe Malavoy, Michel Piccoli
• Directors: Michel Deville
• Writers: Michel Deville, René Belletto, Rosalinde Deville
• Producers: Emmanuel Schlumberger
• Format: PAL
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 2 (Read more about DVD formats.)
• Aspect Ratio: 1.77:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rated: R (Restricted)
• Run Time: 100 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (2 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B0000SVW7M
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #386,155 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Death In A French Garden [Region 2]" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

United Kingdom released, PAL/Region 2 DVD: it WILL NOT play on standard US DVD player. You need multi-region PAL/NTSC DVD player to view it in USA/Canada: LANGUAGES: French ( Dolby Digital 2.0 ), English ( Subtitles ), WIDESCREEN (1.85:1), SPECIAL FEATURES: Biographies, Filmographies, Interactive Menu, Photo Gallery, Scene Access, Trailer(s), SYNOPSIS: A magnate and his younger wife hire David to teach guitar to their teenage daughter. The wife quickly seduces David, and simultaneously he strikes up an acquaintance with the family's inquisitive neighbor. One night, David is mugged but rescued from injury by a stranger, Daniel, who also becomes David's friend and admits to being a hit man. Video tapes of their activities appear in the lovers' mail; David thinks they're from the neighbor, Daniel is sure the husband is onto the affair and hired the mugger. After Daniel tells David that he's been hired to kill the husband, an elaborate manipulation plays out, with murder, suicide, a payoff, more videos, and a surprise pairing. SCREENED/AWARDED AT: Berlin International Film Festival, Ceasar Awards, ...Death in a French Garden ( Péril en la demeure ) ( Peril )

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A surprisingly entertaining black comedy of manners and murders, May 12, 2008

By 

Trevor Willsmer (London, England) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)    (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   

This review is from: Death in a French Garden ( Péril en la demeure ) ( Peril ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

Death in a French Garden was a pleasant surprise. Having particularly disliked the other Michel Delville films I've seen, I wasn't expecting much more than one of those civilized and oh so clever conceits that keeps you at a distance with its own cleverness. Instead it's a wonderfully enjoyable, semi-surreal comedy of manners and premeditated murder that has a sense of fun to it. The directorial style is particularly impressive too, with one scene overlapping with another as the last line or shot of one becomes the first of the next.

C'est la Vie's UK PAL DVD boasts a good subtitled transfer but little in the way of extras - stills gallery, biographies and unsubtitled trailers for Les Diaboliques, Une Parisienne and Les Bijoutiers di Clair de Lune.

4.0 out of 5 stars The enticing French, September 1, 2011

By 

Ian Hunter - See all my reviews

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Death in a French Garden ( Péril en la demeure ) ( Peril ) [ NON-USA FORMAT, PAL, Reg.2 Import - United Kingdom ] (DVD)

There's something enticing about suburban France particularly as depicted in this film. That says nothing about the physical attraction of the two central protagonists. He is a young guitar teacher; she the frankly delicious student's mother. She is slender and oozes sensuality. She comes to his apartment to return his tuning fork. Her very open shirt reveals pert breasts and no bra'. She kisses his hand, then leaves. Next time, the seduction is consummated on a chair. This is all scene setting. As the story unfolds, a woman with a limp, young and with a photographer's eye, starts talking pornographically to him. A hired killer appears. The mother displays an occasional destructive edginess; knocking his music sheets to the floor and spilling his wine bottle, apparently, for its mildly destructive pleasure. The husband has a vaguely sadistic power over his wife. The daughter admits to sleeping with people. The death takes place. The aftermath is convoluted. The end is a surprise.

P.S. In this version, the dark forces of conservatism have intervened. I remember seeing the film first, in the `arty' Cameo cinema in Edinburgh (before even its modest proportions became a split screen centre). The consummation scene began with her walking towards him, already on the chair, lifting her leg to get astride, then impaling herself on his erect manhood. She was in complete command; something that obviously displeased the censor. I remember the audience let out an audible gasp. It's a pity that a depiction of pure lust is deemed unfit. It is part of life after all, the characters were enjoying and they were both consenting! Is it that when a man displays lust, it is acceptable but in a woman's case it is not? (See my first four reviews and that of The Piano Teacher, to tease that point further).

Ian Hunter.
Author of `e-Love'.