The Breach

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.”