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Que La Bete Meure AKA This Man Must Die AKA The Beast Must Die AKA Killer - R0 (United Kingdom)
R0 - United Kingdom - Arrow Films Review written by and copyright: Sam Scott (22nd August 2005). |
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The Film
 Arrow Films, a company who has recently become more 'aware' to DVD fans the world over for giving some Russ Meyer films some great little releases, have decided to also release some films from the well known French director, Claude Chabrol. Que La Bete Meure (AKA This Man Must Die AKA The Beast Must Die AKA Killer) is one of these films. In this film, Claude Chabrol regular Michel Duchaussoy plays Charles Thenier, a single father. Things take a turn for the worse when his only child is involved in a horrendous hit and run accident that unfortunately results in his death. After a long investigation, a chance meeting introduces Charles to Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne), whom he suspects of the unlawful killing of his son. Charles decides that the only way to get even is to take revenge on Paul by infiltrating his family. He does this by faking a love affair with Paul's sister-in-law, Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier) only to discover that Paul's own family despise him in every way. It is through this family hatred in which Charles begins to plot his revenge on Paul. Now then, Que La Bete Meure is a fine psychological thriller that you think can only have one of two endings. Does Charles take revenge on Paul by killing him, or does he let him live with the guilt caused by his idiocy? As the film progresses however, you start to think that another ending is in store. Then another. Then another. A great film made even better for the fact that it is hard to guess the ending (something which is now all to easy at the cinema and can be done in the first 10 minutes of 95% of films). The way that Charle's emotions are shown through excerpts of his diary is another fantastic part of the film. Another film that goes to show why Claude Chabrol deserves to get his own 'range' of DVD's. The film stars a lot of Chabrol 'regulars' including the aforementioned Michel Duchaussoy and Jean Yanne. Other regulars seen in this film include Mark Di Napoli, Stephane Di Napoli, Louise Chevaliar and Dominique Zardi. All bring in above average performances with Duchaussoy and Yanne in particular, giving this film the great portrayal of revenge that the script and Chabrol give us so well. If you've never seen a Chabrol film before, I would recommend Que La Bete Meure as a very good starting point and it's good to see that the director is in no way short of work, some 45 years after the start of his career. Admittedly, I've only seen around 7-8 of his films before and almost all of them are pre-1980 but I'd definately like to catch some of his more recent work.
Video
I'm not going to lie here. Although the picture isn't bad by a long margin, it's not exactly excellent either. The film has been presented with a non-anamorphic 1.78:1 aspect ratio (or as the rather confusing case calls it: 4:3 Letterbox). Don't get me wrong, although there isn't a huge amount of grain, it is clearly there as is the very occasional telecine wobble. The colours were dull and although I'm sure it's not supposed to be the most colourful film in the world, I'm pretty sure it's not meant to be this bland either. The thing that pains me to say about the picture, is that Arrow have taken the effort to make other films in the collection anamorphic, so why not one of his best received films?
Audio
Only one audio track to report of, but it's the original French Dual Mono track which is a-ok. The audio levels are consistent and dialogue is clear at all times (as are the English subtitles). Due to the film being very dialogue driven this track is as good as you need it to be (though let's be honest, a 5.1 track rarely goes amiss).
Extras
Unfortunately this is the major downfall of the disc. We have been given nothing extras wise (just like other discs in this collection). Not even a trailer. A small featurette about Chabrol would of been nice, or maybe even an audio commentary by a film historian. Hell, even a trailer would've been good.
Packaging
This release has been packaged in a standard keepcase.
Overall
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