La Rupture (The Break Up) (The Breach) (Hallucination) (1970)

77% of users liked it
(401 ratings)

Based on a novel by Charlotte Armstrong, the story concerns Helene (Stephane Audran), the wife of a hopeless would-be writer and drug addict. Her husband's best friend tries to lay a trap for Helene, so that she will be forced to pay dearly for a divorce settlement. Also conspiring against Helene is… More Based on a novel by Charlotte Armstrong, the story concerns Helene (Stephane Audran), the wife of a hopeless would-be writer and drug addict. Her husband's best friend tries to lay a trap for Helene, so that she will be forced to pay dearly for a divorce settlement. Also conspiring against Helene is her father-in-law, who wishes to wrest her child away from her. ~ Hal Erickson, Rovi

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Rating, Runtime: Unrated, 2 hr. 4 min.
Directed By: Claude Chabrol
Genres: Drama, Art House & International, Mystery & Suspense

In Theaters: Aug 26, 1970 Wide
On DVD: May 20, 2003
Studio: Pathfinder Home Entertainment

Critic Reviews

Dennis Schwartz, Ozus' World Movie Reviews
One of Claude Chabrol's key films of the 1970s.

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Stephen M

When her high-strung, drug-addicted husband attacks and injures their son, a lowborn but decent and hardworking woman (Stéphane Audran) fights her aristocratic parents-in-law for custody of the boy. With a scene depicting the corruption of a girl with learning difficulties, this jet… More
When her high-strung, drug-addicted husband attacks and injures their son, a lowborn but decent and hardworking woman (Stéphane Audran) fights her aristocratic parents-in-law for custody of the boy. With a scene depicting the corruption of a girl with learning difficulties, this jet black comedy from Claude Chabrol is occasionally too cruel to laugh at, though only the worst kind of prude would deny that the payoffs invariably justify any amount of uncomfortable squirming. Chabrol fans will recognise a lot of familiar faces (Audran, Michel Bouquet, Michel Duchaussoy, Dominique Zardi, to name just a few) but Chabrol irregular Jean-Pierre Cassel walks away with the movie as perhaps the most morally bankrupt private investigator in cinema history. Cassel, of course, would play Stéphane Audran's husband in Buñuel's "Discreet Charm of the Bourgeoisie" a couple of years later.