Mon beau-frère a tué ma soeur (1986)
Directed by Jacques Rouffio

Film Review

Jacques Rouffio may not be the best-known of French filmmakers but at least two of his films, the dark thriller Sept morts sur ordonnance (1975) and anti-capitalist satire Le Sucre (1978), make him worthy of our respect.  Mon beau-frère a tué ma soeur is one of his lesser offerings, a clueless comedy-thriller that goes off the rails within the first ten minutes and never gets back on again.  For much of the film, the leads Michel Piccoli and Michel Serrault seem to be enjoying a private joke, but they are the only ones who appear to see the funny side of this stillborn fiasco. Rising star Juliette Binoche is totally wasted (God knows how she was lured into this slow motion disaster) although her presence does at least provide some succour to any poor wretch who has to watch the film.  Virtually bereft of laughs and hopelessly tangled up in a plot that struggles to make any kind of sense, Mon beau-frère a tué ma soeur is not something you would ever wish to inflict on your worst enemy.

Film Synopsis

The esteemed anthropologist Octave Clapoteau is the happiest of men on the day when he is admitted to the Académie Française with the support of his friend Etienne Sembadel, a well-known psychiatrist.  After the reception, the two friends are accosted by one of Sembadel's psychiatric patients, an attractive young veterinary named Esther Bouloire, who repeatedly insists that her sister was killed by her brother-in-law.  Troubled by this revelation, Clapoteau and Sembadel agree to look into the matter and discover what really did happen to Esther's sister.  Their investigation has hardly begun before the accused brother-in-law makes his confession and is then promptly killed.  By now it is evident to both Clapoteau and Sembadel that there is far more to this case than meets the eye.  It seems that Esther's brother-in-law carried out a series of murders not on his own account but for his uncle Jocelyn, as part of a cruel campaign of revenge.  The adventure isn't over yet.  As more startling discoveries come their way, Clapoteau and Sembadel find themselves on a road leading straight to the Vatican...