Merci Pour le Chocolat (Nightcap)

Claude Chabrol's skill in fashioning quietly unsettling suspense movies is demonstrated once more in his 48th film, made in 2000. Based on the 1948 mystery The Chocolate Cobweb by American novelist Charlotte Armstrong, the picture--cleverly titled Nightcap in English--is typical of his work: less a thriller than a dark, enigmatic character study that succeeds not by springing surprises or shocks but by gradually tightening a web of coincidence and unspoken longing before gently but powerfully revealing what we've already suspected. The linchpin of the plot is Marie-Claire (Isabelle Huppert), the cool, composed head of a Swiss chocolate firm who remarries her former husband Andre (Jacques Dutronc), a concert pianist. But the new household, which seems placid on the surface, is troubled by the presence of Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauly), Andre's son by his now-deceased second wife, and by the arrival of Jeanne (Anna Mouglalis), an aspiring musician who suspects that Andre might be her father. Buoyed by Huppert's beautifully controlled performance, Merci Pour le Chocolat builds considerable tension as it moves toward a denouement that's wrenching even if it's not surprising. Recommended. [Note: DVD extras include a text introduction, three text director/crew profiles, a photo gallery, and trailers. Bottom line: a skimpy extras package for a solid film.] (F. Swietek)[DVD/Blu-ray Review—Oct. 21, 2014—Cohen, 99 min., in French w/English subtitles, not rated, DVD: $29.98, Blu-ray: $39.98—Making its latest appearance on DVD and debut on Blu-ray, 2000's Nightcap is presented with a fine transfer and an LPCM stereo soundtrack on the Blu-ray release. Extras include audio commentary by critics Wade Major and Andy Klein, a new essay by critic Peter Tonguette, and a trailer. Bottom line: Chabrol fans will appreciate the Blu-ray debut of this French thriller.]