The Breach

Claude Chabrol's 1970 French film builds a custody fight as a thriller. Hélène leaves home and files for divorce after her husband, who uses drugs, attacks their child. His wealthy father wants to take the grandchild, and for that he must make her out to be immoral, so he pays a man to do it. The man moves into the boarding house where she is staying and does everything he can to trap her. The film shows the web being woven around a woman step by step and explains the plan to the viewer from the start, so that the tension comes from when she will see it. Chabrol continues his familiar criticism of the bourgeois family, and the strange residents of the boarding house add an uncomfortable humour. Stéphane Audran stars. Who it's for: viewers who like Chabrol and psychological thrillers. Who it's not for: anyone who would rather not approach a scene of violence against a child; the film begins with one.