Claude Chabrol can do a traditional murder mystery and detective procedural as well as anyone. Just see his Inspector Lavardin films (released earlier in 2014 by Cohen) or his final feature Inspector Bellamy with Gerard Depardieu (on DVD from IFC). But it’s not where his heart lies. Chabrol, who has been called “the Gallic Hitchcock,” has always been more interested in character than plot and psychology than suspense but he’s at his best when he’s working them all together. His 1998 The Color of Lies features a murder in a small seaside community in Brittany, a dogged investigator, a prime suspect who can’t seem to help from making himself look more guilty, and a whole cast of back-up suspects to keep the audience guessing, but the mystery is primarily a charged setting for a character study and social portrait of an insular community wrapped up in gossip, suspicion, and fear.
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