La Curée (1966) - film review

Tired of her sham marriage, Renée, the young wife of the wealthy financier Alexandre Saccard, starts an affair with her husband’s son, Maxime.  After a weekend together in the country, Renée and Maxime realise they are in love, and Renée decides to divorce her husband so that she can start a new life with Maxime.  But before Renée can make her move, Alexandre has found out the truth and is ready to thwart her...

Although less striking and revolutionary than Vadim’s earlier films about forbidden love, Et Dieu... créa la femme (1956) and Le Repos du guerrier (1962), La Curée is probably the better film, because it is noticeably more restrained and much less tainted by Vadim’s slight pretentious streak.  The characterisation is more developed, thanks to a better than average script and exemplary acting, making the film more convincing and interesting than most of Vadim’s other works.  The story is taken from a classic novel by the great 19th century French writer, Émile Zola, skilfully updated to the swinging ’60s.

Although Vadim’s wife, Jane Fonda, appears a little too willing to indulge her husband’s craving for voyeuristic love scenes, she still manages to impress, her performance (one of her best) showing great maturity and sensitivity.  Michel Piccoli is equally impressive as Fonda’s quietly manipulative husband, whilst Peter McEnery turns in a convincing performance of the son torn between loyalty to his father and the impossibly beautiful woman he adores.

Although Vadim’s films generally have a slight tendency for the kitsch, being too pretty for their own good, visual beauty (as represented by the sumptuous sets and Claude Renoir’s striking photography) is an important element of La Curée.  First, it establishes the luxurious lifestyle of the central characters and, more importantly, Renée and Maxime’s somewhat idealistic notions of love.  When the futility of their affair becomes apparent, their gilded surroundings start to appear more like a gaudy wrapper, trapping them in a life from which there is no escape.  The almost surreal party sequence at the end of the film, where Renée finds herself again caught in her husband’s velvet web, emphasises this with great tragic poignancy.

Although admittedly Vadim does go slightly over the top in a few places (most notably the slightly farcical bedroom and greenhouse scenes), La Curée pleases in a way that many of his subsequent films failed to, partly because it doesn’t take itself too seriously.  It offers an interesting variation on the familiar love triangle theme and, thanks to its top notch acting performances, makes a fascinating study in obsession, honour and manipulation.

© James Travers 2002

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