Showing @ Institut Français d’Ecosse, Edinburgh, Tue 8 – Fri 11 Nov @ 6:00pm

What was it that attracted director Claude Chabrol so often to Brittany? Perhaps it was the light, or more accurately, the lack of it. The concrete coloured skies and steely seas of Brittany seem a perfect reflection of the brooding quality at the heart of many of  Chabrol’s tales. It may also have been the sense of isolation; Brittany is often compared to Cornwall – both places part but not part of their respective countries and certainly characters in Chabrol’s movies never seem connected to the cynical sophistication of Paris or the blinding candy-coloured world of the French Riviera.

The most likely explanation though was that it was Brittany’s ability to act as a microcosm of society that drew the filmmaker. Every strata of society live cheek by jowl in these small communities so the tensions and conflicts that Chabrol thrived upon were able to be played out in a petri dish. This short season at the Institut Français d’Ecosse gave us three of the French master’s closely observed tales of tension, hypocrisy and murder – plus the chance to spend some time with the man himself as he celebrated his 74th birthday in Olivier Bourbeillon’s 2006 documentary Grand manège.

First up was the wry black comedy Inspector Lavardin using sex and death to poke fun at Chabrol’s frequent target: the bourgeois intelligensia. Jean Poiret’s dapper flic joyously antagonised everyone he came across as he uncovered the secrets hidden by religion and conventionality. La cérémonie, based on a story by Ruth Rendell, was a darker affair with an overwhelming sense of dread building as Sandrine Bonnaire’s solitary maid found a dangerous soulmate in the manic form of Isabelle Huppert’s postmistress. Chabrol’s fascination with relationships, particularly the damaged dynamics of marriage, were on show in the The Colour of Lies again featuring Bonnaire this time playing an unfaithful wife in the midst of a murder investigation and once more grey bretangne played its part.

There were few startling revelations in the documentary other than the fact that for a man who dealt in darkness, Chabrol was a ebullient dinner host to guests including several of his past stars, although he did offer up something of his philosophy on filmaking. For those unfamiliar with Chabrol’s work, this short season was a fine introduction, for others it was the chance to reaquaint themselves with the work and the man who has entertained and intrigued them for years.