Trio infernale

Quite a rare one and based on a true story too which caught my attention, but I found THE INFERNAL TRIO hard to sit through. It's about some bourgeois characters in Marseilles, a man and two women, who through a series of unfortunate events end up committing murder. Bizarre stuff indeed, but this is a French farce picking apart class conventions and as such it left me completely cold. I do enjoy the subject matter - Emile Zola is perhaps my favourite author - but I didn't like any of the characters here, and often this felt rudderless, throwing in a bit of this and a bit of that to get along. There's a notably grisly sequence, but that's the only memorable bit in this.

There was an outcry when "le trio infernal" was released in 1974;the subject was nefarious.Sometimes recalling Leonard Kastle's incomparable "the honeymoon killers"(1969),it depicted the crimes of a Lawyer(Piccoli),his lover (Schneider),and the lover's young sister. Most horrible scene:to get rid of one of their victims' dead body,they dissolve it in sulphuric acid!The director insists on "preparations".We attend the whole thing,the director goes as far as showing the "heroes",emptying the bath tub with pails ,a gas mask on the face.

Enough was enough for the 1974 audience.The worst was Romy Schneider's presence.For a lot of people,she remained the lovely empress Sissi,all smile.She had actually showed this character's darker side in Visconti's "Ludwig II"(1973).The audience could accept her politically correct Sautet efforts-"les choses de la vie"1969,"César et Rosalie",1972)or the academic Granier-Deferre's "le train" (1972),but her portrayal of an abject woman playing with trash was too much for them.

A gruesome farce,it's also a caricature of a selfish society,with its religion the money Goddess.Retro style adds to the harm(sorry,charm)of this bourgeois wholesale massacre .

It's not too hard to understand what this film is aiming at: It's a farce about the moral of the bourgeoisie, drawn into it's ridiculous opposite by evil mastermind Michel Piccoli and his two willing helpers. The problem is, the figures are way too one-dimensional; they are more caricatures than real persons. How then display a critique of the society that helps create people like this and protects them by judging not from deeds or character, but from class and status? The murderous trio's actions go their calm, undisturbed way, no one minds it, no one asks. Add a bit of nudity here and there, some frivolity, some virginal innocence as counterpart, mix it up, and what do you get? A would-be-comedy that wants to be art. Considering this is based on actual events, the reconstruction leaves an even worse taste. For a film from the worlds leading film nation, filmed during the most promising decades of film and starring good actors, a major disappointment.

This adaptation of the novel by Solange Fasquelle marks the directorial debut of Francis Girod. Every director obviously hopes that his or her first film will make some sort of impact and this grim and grisly slice of Guignol certainly had the desired effect although perhaps for the wrong reasons.

Georges-Alexandre Sarret, whose method of disposing of his victims' corpses inspired England's very own 'acid bath murderer' John George Haigh, met Madame la Guillotine in 1934 whilst the two Bavarian sisters who were his lovers/accomplices were each sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

Michel Piccoli and Romy Schneider who had earlier appeared together in Sautet's 'Les Choses de la Vie', play Sarret and Philomena Schmidt whilst Mascha Gonska is Catherine Schmidt, the third member of this utterly depraved ménage a trois.

It must be said that it is only the stylish performances and personalities of these three that make this gruesome opus bearable and enable this viewer at any rate to endure the detailed and lengthy 'acid bath' sequence during which the liquified remains of two bodies are ladled into buckets for disposal in the garden. There would have been very few well-known actresses who would have taken a role which required being stripped down to their birthday suit on the bathroom floor and one must salute the courage of Andréa Ferréol.

Audiences would not have been at all surprised to see the talented Michel Piccoli in this role as he is at his most effective when portraying what one critic has called 'a sinister eroticism' but Schneider devotees were genuinely shocked to see her as a nymphomaniacal murderess. She is in her mid-thirties here and is absolutely brilliant in what she intended to be an image-changing part.

As is customary in film versions there have been a few tweaks for dramatic purposes not least in the fate of guilt-consumed Catherine who is beautifully played by Mascha Gonska. The trial and execution of Sarret have been omitted here and the film ends with his marriage to Philomena, which one can only imagine would be a fate worse than death!

*Minor spoilers ahead...*

This is a film based upon a true story of a serial killing trio that actually may make you laugh at times. It's even listed here as a horror comedy. I assure you however, it will also sicken you unless you yourself are a sociopath or the like. A black comedy it is. In 1974 when this film was released in France, people were up in arms about it. Many have dismissed this film as having very unrealistic one dimensional characters, and this is mostly true, but I think there is a bigger point to this film overall. It's real subject matter under the surface is the selfishness of society under the rule of money. It seems many have missed the point here. In my view this is an artistic piece with something to say. It is actually thought provoking in fact if you just watch it for what it is. The lengths some people will go to, to get what they want can be drastic, and this film drives home that nail. Overall, I think this film is underrated generally. It's a fairly daring piece for it's time, and it has a worthy thought provoking story interestingly delivered. Far from a masterpiece, sure, but I feel if you enjoy good serial killer films, you can't miss this one.

It ends with a fictional marriage is hell sort of joke. If you want to know the real fate of the trio, I'll tell you. The two Sisters were sentenced to 10 years each, as it was one of them that ended up confessing when caught during another scam, and effectively ended Serrat's whole money making murder scheme. Serrat himself was eventually guillotined for the crimes. 7/10.