La Femme Infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife)
Director – Claude Chabrol – 1969 – France – Cert. 15 – 98m
*****
A man suspects his wife is having an affair, hires a private detective, and then acts upon what emerges… – back out in UK cinemas on Friday, September 11th; Claude Chabrol – Elements of Crime, a season of the director’s films, plays at BFI Southbank from Tuesday, September 1st to Tuesday, October 6th 2026.
Charles Desvallées (Michel Bouquet from Just Before Nightfall, 1971; Cop au Vin, 1985, both Claude Chabrol; The Bride Wore Black, François Truffaut, 1966) lives outside Paris with his wife Hélène (Stéphane Audran, then the director’s wife, from Les Biches, 1968, Le Boucher, 1970, both Claude Chabrol; Babette’s Feast, Gabriel Axel, 1987) and pre-teenage son Michel (Stéphane Di Napoli from Que la Bête Meure, Claude Chabrol, 1969).
He works in an office in Paris, to which he commutes by car. She often goes into town, for instance to get her hair done or visit the cinema. One day, he becomes suspicious and hires a private detective to follow her, who reports back that she is visiting the apartment of another man Victor Pegala every few days.… Read the rest