The Breach

(La rupture)

Based on The Balloon Man by Charlotte Armstrong

featuring

Stéphane Audran, Jean-Pierre Cassel, Michel Bouquet, Annie Cordy,

Chabrol liked Charlotte Armstrong (he based Merci pour le chocolat on her as well); like his camera, the women in her women-centered thrillers are off center. At any rate that is how our heroine’s in-laws, the wealthy Regniers, attempt to portray her when she tries to divorce their mentally unstable son. In her rooming house peopled by Tarot-playing biddies and a funny tragedian, Stéphane Audran is being gaslighted by the Regniers’ malign agent. But biddyhood proves powerful. Critic Dave Kehr called The Breach “Chabrol’s most audacious experiment with narrative form—a modernist reworking of the melodrama.”

Judy Bloch
FILM DETAILS 
Screenwriter
  • Claude Chabrol
Based On
  • the novel The Balloon Man by Charlotte Armstrong

Cinematographer
  • Jean Rabier
Language
  • French
  • with English subtitles
Print Info
  • Color
  • Digital
  • 111 mins
Source
  • Artedis