Les bois noirs

I really liked Beatrice Dalle in 'Betty Blue', and I like a lot of contemporary French thrillers, so when I stumbled across the fairly obscure 'The Dark Woods', I was looking forward to watching it. However, as much as I enjoy looking at the stunning Ms. Dalle, the movie itself was a major disappointment. Packaged as a thriller, with the video cover claiming it was "a film by the French master of suspense, Jacques Deray", it actually was a completely different kind of movie from what I anticipated. The basic situation looked like it was going to end up as a Hitchcock-like suspense or even mystery movie, but the plot never goes that way. It never really goes anywhere interesting at all, and the movie remains strangely uninvolving. Violette (Dalle) meets a handsome stranger Gustave (Philippe Volter) and after a whirlwind romance they marry and return to live in his family home. His mother (Genevieve Page, the madame in Bunuel's classic 'Belle De Jour') is quite scary and mysterious, and things look like they might go in a 'Rebecca'-ish direction, but sadly they never do. Gustave's estranged brother Bastien (Stephane Freiss) unexpectedly turns up for a visit, and hits it off with Violette. Gustave in a fit of jealous rage kills his brother and hides the body, so that Violette is none the wiser. Okay, so far, so good. After that the movie just goes on and on and gets increasingly less interesting. An unexpected turn of events involving Gustave and Violette does happen, which I won't reveal for fear of spoiling it, but it is ultimately anti-climactic, and not really worth sitting through this whole thing for. 'The Deep Woods' is a pretty frustrating exercise, and such a missed opportunity. Diehard Dalle fans will probably want to watch it just to see her (and she does look gorgeous), but it's really difficult to say anything positive about this movie. I have a strong feeling I will have to struggle to even remember seeing it in a few years time. If you want to see Dalle at her best stick with 'Betty Blue', and if you're looking for a good contemporary French thriller try 'The Appartment' or 'Harry, He Is Here To Help'.

Like in Minnelli's film "undercurrent" (1946) ,a girl marries a handsome man who is not so nice he appears at first sight.He takes her to his desirable property ("les bois noirs" ) where she meets the mother and ... soon the hubby's brother,who,of course is very cute ,very gentle,well you get the picture.Some elements are also taken from John Stahl's "leave her to heaven" (1945) where Gene Tierney made her suicide to look like a murder.

Deray is unable to build a real atmosphere ,which he did do though in a former work "la piscine" (1968) and he would do later in his underrated "un crime" (1993).Here the characters are cardboard and the choice of vulgar Beatrice Dalle as a romantic girl was not the right move.Genevieve Page ,who worked once with Billy Wilder (the private life of Sherlock Holmes,1969)is completely wasted;So is Michel Duchaussoy in a five -minute part of an investigating magistrate.The clues and the tricks are hackneyed:the film is a long flashback,the husband does not like animals and the ASPCA has work to do :spiders ,bats,dogs and horses are having a bad time here.