À chacun son enfer (1977)
Directed by André Cayatte

Film Review

It may look like a pretty ordinary 1970s crime drama, but À chacun son enfer makes a pretty damning assault on society's morbid obsession with the suffering of others.  For once, it is not the judiciary that director André Cayatte sinks his teeth into but society as a whole as he sets out to remind us that behind every sensational news story there is a gut-wrenching human tragedy.  The ordeal of a mother coping with her only daughter's abduction and murder is graphically portrayed by Annie Girardot, the incomparable actress who had ignited two of Cayatte's previous films, the incendiary Mourir d'aimer (1971) and Il n'y a pas de fumée sans feu (1973).

À chacun son enfer is among Cayatte's more successful attempts to bridge the gap between moralising social commentary and popular entertainment.  A slick, almost unbearably tense thriller, it grabs your attention right from the opening credits and doesn't let go until its shocking ending suddenly hits you in the face with an almighty wallop.  The characters are well-drawn and convincingly portrayed, the story compelling, and the only disappointment is that it is too easy to guess the identity of the mysterious killer (there are only three likely suspects, all highly improbable).

At the height of her powers, Giradot rips as much emotional veracity as she can from the sparse plot, impressing with a performance that is harrowing in its unseemly realism.  It is all too easy to glimpse her character's excruciating torment beneath her wild bouts of hysteria.  If you think Girardot is overdoing it you should ask yourself: 'how would I react in a similar predicament?'   As the by-the-book police chief who does nothing to lessen Giradot's distress, Hardy Krüger is the embodiment of French officialdom at its worst - a heartless automaton of justice.  Once again, Cayatte compels us to sympathise with the little guy who falls foul of France's inhumane legal system - the little guy whose crisis is transformed into a nightmare by the feeding frenzy engineered by the sensation-mongers in the media.

Film Synopsis

A desperate woman makes a mad dash to the television studios, anxious not to waste one second of the air time she has been granted.  Almost overcome with emotion, Madeleine Girard makes an appeal to the kidnapper of her little daughter Laurence, promising that she will not prosecute providing the girl is returned to her unharmed.  On her return home, Madeleine must endure a painful vigil in the company of her husband, Bernard, and her son from a previous marriage.  The evening's ordeal is exacerbated by the selfish demands of Bernard's father and the presence of a crowd of journalists camped on the Girards' doorstep...