Inspecteur Lavardin

Following the success of Poulet au vinaigre, director Claude Chabrol and actor Jean Poiret bring back the film’s protagonist, inspector Lavardin, in this assured sequel.

Raoul Mons, a renowned catholic writer living in a small town in Brittany, is visited by a concerned delegation, which wants to ban a blasphemous play. Mons fulfils his promise to them and the performances do not take place. But when his naked body is found on the beach, it seems as if he has paid a high price for his intervention. Inspector Lavardin is soon on the scene to shed light on the matter, however, as well as the silence of a tight-knit community, the widow Mons transpiring as a former lover of the detective prove worthy obstacles to the investigation.

Chabrol returns the unconventional and controversial Lavardin to the screen with renewed vigour. Having set up much of the back-story and characterisation in the first movie, the director lets loose with an even more beguiling narrative here, complete with twists and revelations.

Likewise, the dialogue is imbued with retorts, repartee and wit as Jean Poiret’s Lavardin gets comfortable in his dominant skin and assumes the guise of a cult cinematic figure. However, Chabrol has never been one for black and white, and the often shocking tactics of the inspector remind us that good and evil are not always clearly distinct. Poiret’s captivating performance encapsulates this adroitly, in which he both entices and repels us with equal measure.

A bona-fide master of the suspense genre by this stage, Chabrol also harks back to his Nouvelle Vague beginnings through the inclusion of two icons from that period: Jean-Claude Brialy and Bernadette Lafont, who appeared together in Chabrol’s Le Beau Serge (often considered the first film of the movement) almost 30 years earlier. The turns are worthy of their reputation, and it is a particular joy to witness Brialy as Lavardin’s extravagantly camp host, Claude Alvarez.

Another gem from the bountiful treasure trove of Chabrol.