Que la Bête Meure

Chabrol's most Langian film - the end is a virtual recreation of that of Moonfleet - Que la Bête Meure, like Lang's Rancho Notorious and The Big Heat, is dominated by the themes of revenge and destiny. However, in contrast to those films, whose heroes are trapped within their desire for revenge, Chabrol's protagonist (Duchaussoy), at first determined to kill the murderer (Yanne) of his son in a hit-and-run accident, finds his self-imposed task less and less appealing as he closes in on his prey. Finally, after Yanne's son kills his boorish, tyrannical father, Duchaussoy claims responsibility for the murder in order not to lose this second, substitute son. A masterful film, all the more powerful for the fact that so much of its meaning is contained in the camera's perspective of what happens rather than simply what happens.