L'Amour est un crime parfait (2014)
Directed by Arnaud Larrieu, Jean-Marie Larrieu

Film Review

The Larrieu brothers' follow-up to their gloriously unhinged apocalyptic fantasy Les Derniers jours du monde (2009) finds them back on more familiar ground, that of the classic French polar, but it still manages to be an unsettling mélange of genres, a twisted potpourri of dark amorous intrigue, lowgrade erotica, suspense thriller and black comedy.  L'Amour est un crime parfait (a.k.a. Love Is the Perfect Crime) is closely based on the 2010 novel Incidences by Philippe Djian, whose best-known work, 37°2 le matin a été, was adapted for cinema by Jean-Jacques Beineix way back in 1986.  The film's title is an obvious nod to Hitchcock's famous quote "Film your murders like love scenes, and film your love scenes like murders."  In their fifth and most accessible film to date this is precisely what the Larrieus attempt to do - with decidedly mixed results.

As in pretty well all of their previous films, Arnaud and Jean-Marie Larrieu impress far more with the quality of their direction than with their screenwriting.  Crafted with ingenuity and elegance, L'Amour est un crime parfait has an alluring cold beauty about it that is in perfect harmony with its sordid subject matter, but it is a beauty that deceives, a trompe-l'oeil to divert our attention from the lack of substance behind it.  The film may be an overt homage to Hitchcock but aesthetically it owes more to Hitchcock's French spiritual brother, Claude Chabrol.  If there is one unifying principle to Chabrol's work it is that we should never take things at face value.  There is always far more beneath the surface than we imagine.  Paradoxically, the Larrieus invert this Chabrolian mantra and give us a film in which there seems to be nothing but an aching void beneath the surface.  Their art consists of little more than a clever conjuring trick, convincing us that we see far more than there actually is.  With a less distinguished and less committed cast we would most probably have seen through the illusion straight away.

In his fourth collaboration with the Larrieus, Mathieu Amalric once again brings gravitas to a film that badly needs it.  His creepily ambiguous portrayal of an oversexed university professor with a Jekyll and Hyde personality provides the film with enough substance to make it worth watching, although it is the more subtle performances from co-stars Maïwenn and Karin Viard that provide the darker, more disturbing insights into human nature.  Whilst the protagonists are convincingly played, the lack of character depth soon becomes apparent and ultimately dents the film's credibility, exposing the Heath Robinson job that the film's authors have done on its plot.  L'Amour est un crime parfait works only so long as the spectator is prepared to suspend his or her disbelief.  Like any conjuring trick, once you have seen through the illusion the film's charm evaporates in an instant.

Film Synopsis

Marc may be an enthusiastic literature professor, but he is also an inveterate skirt-chaser, and his habit of taking his female students to bed often brings him into conflict with Richard, his departmental head at Lausanne University.  The fact that Richard is amorously involved with Marc's sister Marianne doesn't exactly help their strained relationship.  Richard's warnings that Marc's over-active libido will one day get him into trouble prove to be justified.  Waking up one morning in the alpine chalet that he shares with his sister, Marc is surprised to find his latest amorous conquest, an attractive student named Barbara, lying dead in his bed.  He has no recollection of the night before, so he is at a complete loss to explain the girl's presence in his chalet.

Realising that he is potentially in very deep water, Marc naturally denies any knowledge of Barbara's disappearance when the police come to question him.  He keeps his secret to himself, and refuses to divulge anything to either Marianne or Richard.  Then he comes up against Anna, the stepmother of the dead girl, who is clearly anxious about Barbara's unexplained absence and is pursuing her own investigation into her disappearance.  Despite his concerns that he may be blamed for his lover's death, Marc finds himself powerfully drawn to Anna and is soon up to his usual amorous tricks.  Little does he know that the enigmatic woman is not quite what she pretends to be...