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Landru (1962)

Director: Claude Chabrol

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From Time Out Film Guide

Enigmatic, slyly amused, fastidious, swinging from bleak introspection to boisterous knockabout, such is the style of Landru, the character and the film both. Its first half is a series of repetitions: WW1 newsreels to confirm the period, Landru selecting a victim, winning her confidence; then a freeze-frame on a trusting face, followed by a smoking chimney and the English neighbours complaining about nasty smells. The remainder - arrest, trial, execution - is slightly anti-climactic, but carried along by Denner, his mincing movements, booming bass voice and his mesmerising strangeness making for a plausible mass murderer. It's violence-free, though not without visual shocks: bilious purple upholstery intruding into a world of pale pastel, a victim-to-be ominously aligned with a row of brimming coal scuttles.

Author: BBa 0000-00-00 00:00:00

Time Out Film Guide

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Cast & crew

Director: Claude Chabrol

Producer: Georges de Beauregard, Carlo Ponti

Cast: Charles Denner, Michèle Morgan, Danielle Darrieux, Hildegarde Neff, Juliette Mayniel, Stéphane Audran, Catherine Rouvel, Raymond Queneau, Jean-Pierre Melville full cast

Duration: 119 mins


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