Merci pour le chocolat

Jeanne Pollet (Anna Mouglalis), a young piano student, discovers there’s a faint possibility that she was switched at birth with the son a famous concert pianist André Polonski (Jacques Dutronc). Her curiosity perked, she visits him and makes the acquaintance of his family: his second wife Mika (Isabelle Huppert), the owner of a chocolate factory, and his son Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauly), whose mother died in a car accident, resulting in his father’s second marriage. Jeanne is warmly received by Mika, while André offers to train her piano technique. The under-achieving Guillaume, on the other hand, feels threatened by the new arrival, however, Jeanne soon learns that he is not the family member of whom she should be most wary.

Claude Chabrol’s sublime thriller deservedly won the prestigious prix Louis-Delluc for best French film in 2000. With an air-tight script, the director divulges just the right amount of information at the appropriate times to keep the spectator constantly guessing as to the foul play unfolding before our eyes. Technically brilliant, an unnerving atmosphere pervades throughout the film as Chabrol attains a plane of suspense worthy of his great idol Hitchcock.

The cast play out the mystery perfectly, with Mouglalis’ (Coco et Igor) wide-eyed enthusiasm serving as an effective contrast to Dutronc’s (Van Gogh, L’Important c’est d’aimer) moody introspection. In her sixth role for the director, Huppert delivers a pitch perfect performance, abound with charm, ambiguity and cool calculation.

Dutronc’s musical stardom adds poignancy to his role here and music becomes a pivotal character in itself. Mathieu Chabrol, the filmmaker’s son and composer of choice since the early eighties, influences the mood and affect of the film through a haunting score, where dark funeral compositions heighten the dramatic tension and sense of morbidity. The subsequent The Piano Teacher (also with Huppert) and The Page Turner would use the suspense-laden qualities of pianos to similar ends.

Preceded by La Cérémonie and completed by The Flower of Evil (both showing on Cinémoi as part of the Chabrol season), Merci pour le chocolat boasts Chabrol at his beguiling best. A sweet treat indeed.