The Bridesmaid

Cinematic dawdlers like Terrence Malick and Quentin Tarantino could learn something from a workhorse like Claude Chabrol—the 76-year-old French filmmaker has been cranking out a movie a year ever since he pretty much created the Nouvelle Vague movement in the late 1950s. His 2004 film, The Bridesmaid, like many other Chabrol “thrillers,” is enticing but sere, vaguely Hitchcockian with barely a trace of the master’s grand flourishes. The Bridesmaid tells a slyly wandering story of obsessive love concerning creepy straight arrow Phillippe (Benoît Magimel) and manipulative actress Senta (Laura Smet), who is either a great liar or totally freaking insane. The performances are good, and the score by Matthieu Chabrol (Claude’s son) evokes Bernard Herrmann, but the film doesn’t quite connect.