Une Partie de Plaisir [Pleasure Party] [Pleasure Game] *** (1975, Paul Gégauff, Danièle Gégauff, Clémence Gégauff, Paula Moore, Giancarlo Sisti) – Classic Movie Review 8980

Director Claude Chabrol’s 1975 Une Partie de Plaisir [Pleasure Party] [Pleasure Game] [Love Match] is a study of an apparently idyllic and blissful but actually disastrous marriage that takes a dark, cynical and bleak view of the nature of human relationships.

Phillipe (Paul Gégauff) decides to have an open marriage with Esther (Danièle Gégauff), but Phillipe becomes crazy with jealously with Giancarlo Sisti as Esther’s lover.

Paul Gégauff, Chabrol’s regular scriptwriter, writes the effectively toxic screenplay and gives a compelling performance as the abhorrent husband Phillipe, worryingly acting with hos own true-life former wife Danièle Gégauff as Esther and their daughter Clémence Gégauff as Esther and Philippe’s daughter, after Jean-Louis Trintignant turned down the role of Philippe.

Such a painstaking, unflinching look at a diseased marriage exerts an uneasy though real fascination, and Chabrol and writer Gégauff take great pains to leave the audience feeling somewhat queasy and disgusted by the end.

Also in the cast are Paula Moore, Cécile Vassort, Michel Valette, Mario Santini, Pierre Santini, Henri Attal, Aurora Maris and Jean-Christophe Queff.

Une Partie de Plaisir [Pleasure Party (US)] [Pleasure Game (UK)] [Love Match] is directed by Claude Chabrol, runs 100 minutes, is made by Gerico Sound, Les Films de la Boétie, Sunchild Productions, is released by Les Films de la Boétie (1975) (France), Joseph Green Pictures (1976) (US) and Artificial Eye (1977) (UK),  is written by Paul Gégauff, is shot by Jean Rabier, is produced by André Génovès, and scored by Pierre Jansen, with music by Ludwig van Beethoven, Brahms and Schubert, and Production Design by Guy Littaye.

© Derek Winnert 2019 Classic Movie Review 8980

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