This Man Must Die

Hit and run or knocked over chess piece in This Man Must Die

Claude Chabrol's This Man Must Die, from 1969, is a top notch revenge melodrama. Michel Duchaussoy plays the father of a boy who dies in a hit and run accident. He vows revenge and the remainder of the film concerns his search for the perpetrator. The screenplay, taken from Nicholas Blake's novel, offers Chabrol a perfect template for an exploration of his usual themes of family dysfunction, manipulation and violence. Duchaussoy's character, Charles, finds out that film star Helene Larson, played by Caroline Cellier, was in the car at the time of the accident. He subtly romances her in order to find the culprit. He also ingratiates himself with her family until his suspicions align on her brother-in-law, a vulgar and thuggish garage magnate played with great gusto by Jean Yanne. Despite himself, Charles develops feelings of tenderness towards Helene and, especially, her abused nephew, Philippe. This leads towards an act of self-sacrifice unusual in the Chabrol canon which chiefly chronicles the dog eat dog nature of existence.

From the masterly cross-cutting between speeding car and victim that opens the film, This Man Must Die displays Chabrol at the top of his game. Sweeping pans show off the exteriors of Brittany as picturesque, yet harsh; a fitting battleground for a game of domination. When Charles and Helene make love and knock the pieces off an antique chessboard, it is as if that game of domination has been paused for a brief respite. Yet, in Chabrol's oeuvre romance is fleeting, as his characters, especially his male ones, always resort to exerting control over their dominion. Duchaussoy is a model of repressed fury. Cellier is merely adequate. One wishes Stephane Audran had been available. Chabrol's handling of action sequences looks clumsy compared to his main inspiration, Hitchcock, but This Man Must Die is comparable to the best work of that master.

Treacherous footing and intimations of domination in  This
Man Must Die