A tragicomedy about a man who lived and died with utmost contempt for the human beings around him. I learned about the Landru case in Law School, in a mock trial that was more sane than the real thing, and through Gaston Leroux’s brilliant duology La Poupée Sanglante and La Machine à Assassiner. It inspired an element of my own upcoming novel, so let’s just say I was beyond excited to find out that Claude Chabrol made a movie about the case. His iteration of the story is interesting because it fits Henri-Désiré Landru’s personality well: it’s pretty funny at times, like the killer’s suave persona, but there’s always something dark lingering. It’s also maybe the most subtle serial killer film I’ve ever watched, in the sense that all the kills are merely implied, which I think it’s the right approach for a true crime movie, since it’s more respectful to the victims. I really like how screenwriter Françoise Sagan treats Landru as a symptom of the bigger chaotic hardships that France was facing due to World War I, and how his case was used to take the public’s attention off the political situation of the country. Charles Denner has an absolute blast playing the killer; it’s disturbing how Landru manages to mold his personality to attract different types of women, and sad how easily those poor victims, often desperate and alone, fell for his charm. The trial part is amazing, it really shows how exhausting and absurd they can get. And hey, Claude Chabrol filming a scandal could never go wrong.
A tragicomedy about a man who lived and died with utmost contempt for the human beings around him. I learned about the Landru case in Law School, in a mock trial that was more sane than the real thing, and through Gaston Leroux’s brilliant duology La Poupée Sanglante and La Machine à Assassiner. It inspired an element of my own upcoming novel, so let’s just say I was beyond excited to find out that Claude Chabrol made a movie about the case. His iteration of the story is interesting because it fits Henri-Désiré Landru’s personality well: it’s pretty funny at times, like the killer’s suave persona, but there’s always something dark lingering. It’s also maybe the most subtle serial killer film I’ve ever watched, in the sense that all the kills are merely implied, which I think it’s the right approach for a true crime movie, since it’s more respectful to the victims. I really like how screenwriter Françoise Sagan treats Landru as a symptom of the bigger chaotic hardships that France was facing due to World War I, and how his case was used to take the public’s attention off the political situation of the country. Charles Denner has an absolute blast playing the killer; it’s disturbing how Landru manages to mold his personality to attract different types of women, and sad how easily those poor victims, often desperate and alone, fell for his charm. The trial part is amazing, it really shows how exhausting and absurd they can get. And hey, Claude Chabrol filming a scandal could never go wrong.
