A Double tour

His third feature in as many years, the prolific and exciting upstart Claude Chabrol followed his acclaimed Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins with this foray into psychological thriller, set in rural Provence.

The respectable Henri Marcoux is having an affair with a younger woman, Leda. Although his wife, Thérèse, is in the know, she would prefer to avoid scandal at all costs. However, matters are complicated when her daughter Elisabeth is courted by an unconventional Hungarian suitor Laszlo, and her son Richard starts taking a burgeoning interest in his father’s mistress. The stage is set for family passions to explode, with tragic consequences.

A Double tour marks Chabrol’s technical shift to colour and on a more thematic level, his movement from the interior psychology of the characters in his first two films to a more narrative based thriller, driven by external plot developments and an effective whodunit conceit.
The film also signals Chabrol’s poignant and piercing knack for social critique, in particular of the bourgeoisie, with which he is so familiar. The director ruthlessly exposes the back-stabbing, hypocrisy and pretensions that smite each character and make for an enthralling melodrama of obsession and infidelity. Hitchcock’s influence becomes increasingly visible here and Chabrol, who had previously co-authored with Eric Rohmer a book on the master of suspense, even accords himself a ‘spot the director’ cameo in the same vein.

Due to illness, Chabrol’s leading man of choice at the time, Jean-Claude Brialy had to pass up the role of Laszlo Kovacs, which made way for a young Jean-Paul Belmondo, who was on the cusp of international stardom for his iconic turn in Godard’s Breathless. Indeed, his alias in the latter film is his character Laszlo from A Double tour, a part he imbues with magnetism and vigour. He is surrounded by a fine cast, including André Jocelyn and Bernadette Lafont. However, Madeleine Robinson lingers strongest in the mind as the high-strung socialite desperate to keep up appearances and she duly received the award for best actress at the Venice Film Festival.