If there is a movie from Chabrol's early period (roughly 1958-1962)which predates great things to come,it must be "l'Oeil Du Malin" .Although it's not as appealing as "Le Beau Serge" , "Les Cousins" or "A Double Tour" ,it contains the seeds of "La Femme Infidèle" or "Juste Avant La Nuit".
Still entangled in the Nouvelle Vague vices (loose screenplay),Chabrol shows for the first time his hatred for the bourgeoisie ("A Double Tour" was more a paean to Hitchcock than a social comment) ,a subject which will become his trademark in those golden years (1967-1973) when he was ,at least to my eyes ,the best French director .And for the first time,Stephane Audran plays lead -let's pass over in silence "les Bonnes Femmes ",Chabrol at his Nouvelle Vaguest hence at his worst- :a lot of people have said that those brilliant films of the early sixties/late seventies owe a lot to her.
"Le Malin" means "the devil" ;Jacques Charrier was probably not the right choice ,being too good-looking and too limited to play such an ambiguous character ;Jean -Claude Brialy , Laurent Terzieff or Gérard Blain would have shone in this kind of part.This "devil" , a failed journalist ,wants to destroy a nice bourgeois couple who lives in a desirable mansion .It looks like a blueprint for the great films to come.The part of the German husband, for instance,is too underwritten whereas it's perhaps the most interesting.There are memories from WW2 which were already present in the very strange "Nazi" scene in "les Cousins" .His relationship with wife is only skimmed over (just compare with "la Femme Infidèle" or " Juste Avant La Nuit") Essential viewing for anyone interested in Chabrol's work though.
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