Bluebeard (Blu-ray)

New Wave master Claude Chabrol takes his favored subject of bourgeois crime and duplicity into the realm of farce and animation with his odd film, BLUEBEARD. The film is based on the true story of Henri Landru, a middle class Parisian furniture dealer during WWII who systematically seduced, conned and murdered more than ten women. Chabrol's icily stylized film depicts Landru as an aloof, bearded dandy, placing ads in the local paper in order to lure wealthy widows into his clutches. After declaring his undying passion for the lonely women, Landru would bring them to his secluded country villa, persuade them to grant him power of attorney and then murder them. Chabrol transforms this horrifying tale into a highly stylized spectacle. The sets are elaborately decorated in gentle pastel hues of purple and green. The acting is detached. And the pace is almost comedic with its sight gags and punchlines. True to Chabrol's style, the humorous elements of Landru's misdeeds do not deflate the film's unblinking revelation that the most vile and monstrous tendencies of human nature are often masked behind a well-mannered exterior. By pushing his normal style into the realm of parody, the horror hidden within everyday events becomes even more compelling, and the characters become even more real.