Eaux profondes (1981)
Directed by Michel Deville

Film Review

Although somewhat marred by its jarring excesses (particularly the overuse of music to create and emphasise mood), Eaux profondes is a respectable adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's novel Deep Water, painting a disturbing portrait of marital conflict in a seemingly respectable bourgeois setting.  Although the film was directed by Michel Deville, it has a distinctly Hitchcockian feel to it, with camera motion and lighting imaginatively used to heighten the tension and suspense. In many way, it resembles a good Claude Chabrol film, but with a more sardonic undertone.

Jean-Louis Trintignant is surprisingly chilling as a man who flies into a rage when his pet snails are endangered but who has no compunction whatsoever about killing other men to keep his wife.  This first rate performance is matched by that of his co-star, Isabelle Huppert, who somehow manages to convey female vulnerability and cold masculine resolve, as and when the mood suits her.

Although the film tends to drift in its second half, and its ending is somethimng of a disappointment, Eaux profondes is a strangely compelling work which delivers a few unexpected shocks. Somewhat darker in tone than Deville's early comedies - L'Appartement des filles (1963), À cause, à cause d'une femme (1963) - it still has a comedic edge to it, and this is its main charm.

Film Synopsis

Vic Allen appears to accept his young wife Melanie's flirtations with men of her own age with a generous insouciance.  He amuses himself by scaring off her potential lovers by claiming that he killed one of their predecessors.   This only increases his wife's antagonism towards him, but Vic loves her too much to let her go.  When Melanie's next suitor is found dead in a swimming pool, she is convinced that her husband killed him, but she has no proof.  Their psychological battle of wills has only just begun...