The Bridesmaid (2004)

An Exercise In Nonsense

It really made me laugh, but for some moments I was tearing up because I could relate so much.

It's funny, it's tense, it features two great performances from two actors and the director expertly creates a web of odd tension where you actually don't know what is happening for the majority of the run time.

This is a gorgeous movie made by a gorgeous spirit.

A young man (Benoît Magimel) attracts a fatal attraction (Laura Smet) at his sister's wedding. Smet plays a psychotic girl who Magimel thinks is only living in a semi fantasy world. But unfortunately it is more than that.I don't care for horror/psychopathic killer genres but if you do Claude Chabrol delivers again.Smet does a perfect job of portraying a mentally ill female--and the story leaves you in doubt so you have to watch it all the way through to see what happens. Also Benoît is handsome, after recent doses of Depardieu and Yves Montand--this is a relief.Good adult entertainment. Both the main characters are strong actors. Also as another reviewer stated Smet is uniquely beautiful as well as a good actress....as stated previously ditto Magimel. Short dark horror story.Recommend if you like the genre.

Sometimes the best way to understand a film is to listen to the director's own words. With "La demoiselle d'honneur," even that may not aid one's comprehension. For me, this film appears to be too loosely constructed to provide much more than very casually related scenes which appear to go nowhere. For example, director Clausd Charbrol, in a written interview in the special effects section of the DVD, says: " In my films the plot is not terribly significant. I try to get it out of the way in the first reel." One is left wondering why there is a wedding anyway? Why is there a bridesmaid? Why so much emphasis on the bride's mother doing hairdressing in her kitchen? Charbrol wants the audience to identify with Beniot, but identify with what? Charbol claims Phillipe's character is 80% sex and 20% passion. From this, the director expects the audience (in his words)to be "strong enough or crazy enough to reject their whole mental makeup." Phillipe drives a new car in the film apparently because the auto agency delivered it to the set by mistake, so his boss Nadeau lets him drive it for six months until his own driver's license is reinstated, but he admonishes Phillipe to "bring it back in one piece." The beach scene is an clearly stated as being an illusion to FROM HERE TO ETERNITY. There is also a clear illusion to PSYCHO. Of course, the absence of plot as the film progresses seems to allow the story to go out of control. Chabrol explains: "You have to ask funny questions at times." The only funny question I can think of is "Why would anyone want to see this film?" I find no merit for recommendation.

The films of French Cinema master Claude Chabrol have been some of the quirkier, intelligent, strange, and creative works to come out of France (La Fleur du mal, Merci pour le chocolat, Au coeur du mensonge, Rien ne va plus, La Cérémonie, L'Enfer, Madame Bovary, Dr. M, etc). His works are marked with sinister underpinnings and his technique has been to place his characters in situations that challenge them to behaviors they consider bizarre until they understand the core of their somewhat deranged personalities. LA DEMOISELLE D'HONNEUR (THE BRIDESMAID) succeeds as a art work on so many levels that the viewer is inclined to forgive some of the dangling missing pieces in character and plot development that prevent this film from being Chabrol's finest. The setting, pacing, cast and concept are intriguingly seductive: that is enough to make the film work well.The Tardieu family is in the midst of preparing for the wedding of one daughter Sophie (Solène Bouton), learning to accept the new love affair of the mother Christine (Aurore Clément) to a wealthy newly divorced man Gérard (Bernard Le Coq), becoming used to the edgy antisocial behavior of daughter Patricia (Anna Mihalcea), and all the while being cared for by the successful contractor son Philippe (Benoît Magimel). On the television is the report of a murdered young woman and the disruption of a television show frustrates the obsessive Philippe in his work to keep the family focused. We jump to Sophie's wedding to nerdy Jacky (Eric Seigne) whose cousin Stéphanie "Senta" Bellange (Laura Smet) is the bridesmaid of the title. The strange but sensuous Senta captures Philippe's eye and a rather torrid love affair begins. Senta is passionate and makes Philippe agree to four demands to prove he loves her: the last two (killing someone/anyone) and having sex with a same sex partner) jolt Philippe but he throws his usual caution to the wind and proceeds with the pairing. A homeless man who lives at Senta's grimy cellar lodging door repulses her, and when a police report that the man has been found dead, Philippe falsely 'confides' to Senta that he is responsible. Senta then promises to kill Gérard as her half of the bargain: Gérard has avoided Philippe's mother and Philippe feels animosity toward anyone who would disturb his beloved mother. The plot thickens, then boils: the 'murders' change from reality to mistaken identity to heinous ends. Philippe has become immersed in Senta's madness, leaving an ending that remains 'in media res'.Chabrol leaves strange clues scattered about for the astute eye to discover, at times in retrospect, and it is this trait that makes the story so fascinating. The cast is superb, with Benoît Magimel proving that his success in 'The Pianist' was not a fluke. He is a gifted actor and maintains an electrifying screen presence. This may not be Chabrol's best film, but it is twisted enough to keep the viewer tensely focused on the very strange story and on the complexly interesting set of characters in this very French film noir! Grady Harp

Just like Patricia Highsmith, Ruth Rendell is a perfect inspiration to Claude Chabrol. Following Patricia Highsmith's example, Ruth Rendell minutely explores the troubled minds of unbalanced characters and the effects of their dangerous conduct on the people they mix with, the latter unaware of their mental imbalance. And what is director Chabrol pet theme? Just that!This second child of a love match ( "La Demoiselle d'Honneur" is "La Cérémonie"'s younger sister ) is - unsurprisingly - as good as the first product of their encounter. This time around, two hearts, two bodies are irrepressibly attracted to each other but will the sick mind of one contaminate the other's healthy brain? This is what the story is about and fascination slowly but surely finds its way to the viewer. Indeed Chabrol's talent mainly lies in his ability to make the story shift from the ordinary ( Philippe's family life, his job, the wedding ) to the uncanny ( Senta's odd ideas, the queer characters living in a bizarre house, Senta's sincere love tainted with unsettling ideas).Benoît Magimel and Laura Smet embody the cursed couple to perfection.In addition, there are excellent supporting performances, mainly from Aurore Clément ( the mother whose suffering is made apparent despite the character's efforts to hide it ), from young Anna Mihalcea ( striking as a young tortured rebel ) and from Michel Duchaussoy ( very amusing as good-natured tramp ).All this fine movie lacks to be a genuine masterpiece is an extra dose of intensity. But , as it is, it's quite worth seeing.