Review of The Flower of Evil

Despite its deceptively calm exterior, "The Flower Of Evil" is probably one of Claude Chabrol's most ambitious movies: he tackles a wide range of topics here, including marital infidelity (plus the thought of it), (possible) incest, the joy of happy memories and the pain of sad ones, the burden of guilt, political ethics, and history repeating itself to an almost supernatural degree. However, the script (which he co-wrote) is a bit too muddled; I've watched this film twice now and I probably still couldn't draw an error-free family tree for these characters if I had to. The exact nature of the relationship between Benoit Magimel's and Melanie Doutey's characters remains puzzling to the end (are they cousins? Half-siblings? Step-siblings?); nonetheless, their first intimate scenes together are highly erotic (Doutey is amazingly beautiful). The film is splendidly acted all around, especially by Suzanne Flon as Aunt Line. **1/2 out of 4.