Masks

A writer comes to a TV personality's country estate ostensibly to write his biography, but seems to take a special interest in the man's goddaughter, as well as another young woman who had lived there before disappearing. He's brought a gun and snoops around from the beginning, setting up a cat and mouse game between the two men played behind the politest of French manners. Chabrol is a bit by the numbers in the sense that this plays out as expected and could have done with a twist or two, but the tension with some of the scenes involving the goddaughter is pretty good. I wasn't as convinced about the love story which develops, which didn't seem realistic or even necessary to tell the story. It was fun watching the mask fall during the TV show though, with Philippe Noiret really leaning in to the performance.