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Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

Posted By: Someonelse
Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

Ophélia (1963)
DVD9 | VIDEO_TS | PAL 16:9 | 01:39:01 | 6,50 Gb
Audio: French AC3 2.0 @ 192 Kbps | Subs: English, French SDH
Genre: Drama

Director: Claude Chabrol
Stars: Alida Valli, Claude Cerval, André Jocelyn

Yvan Lesurf is having difficulty coming to terms with his mother Claudia’s marriage to Adrien, his father’s brother, barely a few months after his father’s death. Yvan has grown to loathe his uncle but is at a loss what to do, so he wanders aimlessly in the grounds of his house. Claudia understands her son’s disquietude and tries to assuage her husband’s anger. One day, André Lagrange, a friend of the family, voices his objection to Yvan’s attempts to seduce his daughter Lucie. Having seen Olivier’s Hamlet at the local cinema, Yvan is struck by the similarities between Shakespeares’s play and his own situation. This soon turns into a morbid obsession and Yvan even believes he is Hamlet and starts to call Lucie Ophélia. Meeting his friend François at a café, Yvan explains that his mother and his uncle are Gertrude and Claudius, Hamlet’s mother and stepfather. It is they who killed his father! To expose this crime, Yvan persuades his friend to help him make a short film…



Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

When it takes 12 years for a renowned director's movie to reach our screens, the product is apt to be a jewel or a dog. Claude Chabrol's "Ophelia," made in 1962, has just emerged from the kennel, and although the picture has a bit of historical interest, much of it strays far from the film maker's own talents. "Ophelia" opened yesterday at the Playboy Theater.

Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

A wealthy young provincial suspects his mother (Alida Valli, a study in bitter restraint) and his uncle of having killed his father in order to marry each other. Clutching some clues from "Hamlet," he tries to expose them by shouting accusations at meals, pretending to be crazy, and by making a short movie about an incestuous crime. Obsessed with seeming and being, denouncing humanity at large, he trots about in the woods in a business suit and tie, hugging his divine discontent

Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

Meanwhile, he attempts to force a young woman (Juliette Mayniel) into the role of his Ophelia. Their relationship mainly consists of his murmuring claptrap about the beauties of nature into her ear, while she laughs skittishly and favors him with somber or demure smiles. Eventually, her father — who is of course labeled Polonius — dies in a tree after one of the funniest heart attacks I've seen in years. The quasi-Hamlet remarks that trees bear strange fruit these days.

Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

The movie is equally boring and pretentious, because of the characterization of the tormented hero. Played by André Jocelyn, he comes across as a huffy bundle of affectations, and between the bouts of hollering, his style is stiff and vapid.

Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

However, there are moments that will reward some students of Chabrol, such as the theme of individuals feeling guilty when they're innocent. The elegant camera-work lifts the woodland episodes above the general banality, and the formal meal scenes contain some of Mr. Chabrol's choicer observations of people chewing and swallowing while their pleasure in food is spoiled by the anger in the air. And there are a couple of nice thugs. But "Ophelia" hardly evokes Mr. Chabrol's best films, such as "La Femme Infidèle"; instead, it recalls his creakiest earlier work, like "Les Cousins" and "Landru."
Ophelia (1963) [Re-UP]

Special Features: None

Many Thanks to Original uploader.