The Third Lover

Claude Chabrol's 1962 film is among his least known and hardest works. Albin, a failed journalist on assignment in Germany, meets the successful writer Andreas and his wife Hélène; his interest in her quickly becomes a wish to take over a life. While Andreas is away on business, Albin acts. The film presents jealousy not as an emotion but as a method: what Albin does is try to fill his own deficiency by destroying the life he envies. It is an early and merciless example of Chabrol's view of bourgeois marriage. Stéphane Audran appearing near the start of her long run in his films is a separate interest. The use of narration places the viewer inside the perpetrator's logic. Who it's for: viewers drawn to the Chabrol branch of the French New Wave and to psychological thrillers. Who it's not for: anyone looking for a character to sympathise with, or who dislikes a cold and distant tone.