A director whose output is as prolific as that of Claude Chabrol, beginning in 1958 with 'Le Beau Serge', is bound to have highs and lows. Likewise his professional relationship with Isabelle Huppert produced some great and not so great films. Here he has given us a well-scripted, well-made and hugely entertaining piece with Huppert at her most irresistible. She plays a con artist whose partner in crime is the superlative Michel Serrault. They are doing very well for themselves until her over-confidence causes them to start punching above their weight........ Huppert and Serrault are simply fabulous and play off each other beautifully. Such professionalism is becoming more and more rare.
Francis Cluzot is effective as a man who pays a heavy price for being duped and there is a chilling performance by Jean-Francois Balmer as a psychopathic villain who loves Puccini and quotes Baudelaire. Obviously this film cannot begin to match those of Chabrol's golden period fom the late sixties, early seventies but that is quite frankly irrelevant. Bearing in mind this is from a writer/director not far off the age of seventy we must surely applaud and be grateful for his longevity and inventiveness.
Review of The Swindle
