The Color Of Lies

In one of his finest late-career films, Chabrol once again uses a murder mystery to expose the underlying tensions and deceptions of a close-knit community. When a 10-year-old's violated body is found in the woods of a Breton fishing village, suspicion falls on an unsuccessful painter (Jacques Gamblin) whose wife (Sandrine Bonnaire) is tempted by the advances of a conceited TV personality (Antoine de Caunes in a brilliant performance). Characteristically, Chabrol is less interested in whodunit mechanics than in dissecting a culture of lies-from advertising to adultery-that permeates modern society.