This Man Must Die (1970)

A hit and run driver kills a child. The child's father Charles wants to do everything to revenge the death of his son. After a long investigation a chance meeting puts him in the presence of Paul a despicable garage owner who terrorizes his family. Paul is the murderer of Charles' son. Charles waits for the right moment to face Paul and to bring him to justice. System Requirements:Running Time: 110 MinutesFormat: DVD MOVIE Genre: FOREIGN/LATIN UPC: 825307906196 Manufacturer No: PH90619 Product Description

A fine movie by Chabrol filled with revenge, tension and even a kind of morality

"It may take six months," writes Charles Thenier in a diary he has begun, "or one or two years, but I'll find him. I'll make friends with him. I'll wait patiently. When he's trapped, I'll look at him with a smile, directly in the eye. And I'll make him deserve his death."

Thenier, a widower, has just seen his young son killed by a hit-and-run driver. The car was speeding through the narrow streets, struck the boy and didn't pause. When the police cannot find the driver, Thenier (Michel Duchaussey) is determined to do so himself. Then he'll kill the driver. This Man Must Die is one of Claude Chabrol's most elegant and tensest thrillers, with a conclusion that some might find ambiguous but which I found sad but emotionally satisfying. Thenier begins his search with a description of the car. He visits every garage he can think of. Almost by chance he learns of a car that had a fender repaired by the man who most likely was driving the car, the man who owns a repair garage. Thenier arranges a chance meeting with the other person in the car, the actress Helen Lanson (Caroline Celler), whose brother-in-law he finally learns was the driver. He seduces her and then arranges to accompany her for a few days visit to the man's home in Brittany near the coast. Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne) is the man, and his wife is Helen's sister. Decourt and his wife have a teen-aged son, Phillippe (Marc Di Napoli). Paul Decourt is a loathsome bully. If anyone should believe in evil, Decourt would be an example. He's not just loud, coarse and contemptuous of others. He amuses himself by humiliating his wife in public and dominating his son. He beds the maid and his partner's wife openly. He ignores anyone's feelings and opinion's but his own. His wife is intimidated...and his son wants him dead. During the time Thenier spends in Decourt's home he comes to know Phillippe, and the boy can sense that Thenier wants to kill Decourt, too.

"Lovers often hesitate," Thenier writes in the diary, "not out of shyness but to prolong their awaiting happiness. I, full of hatred, am savoring what awaits me. His killing will only be a gesture of a man throwing away the used peel of a fruit slowly enjoyed to the pit." Ah, yes...the diary. Decourt discovers it and keeps it, and a crucial question is whether or not Thenier set him up to find it. What at first was an obsessed and understandable pursuit of revenge and murder on the part of Charles Thenier now also is complicated by Phillippe's own determination. The diary may be Thenier's outlet for his thoughts, but it also could be a clever tool of self-protection. What we know for sure is that Decourt shortly after dies in agony. The police investigate and decide Thenier is probably the number one suspect. Yet when Phillippe intervenes we're not so sure. We're left with a satisfying tale of revenge and retribution, but also of sacrifice and of a kind of morality. After all, once a person has exacted his revenge, what's left?

The title of the movie comes from Ecclesiastes by way of Brahms, titled "Vier Ernste Gesange." Here's a part worth thinking about...

For that which befalleth the sons of men befalleth beasts,
as the one dieth, so dieth the other;
yea, they have all one breath;
so that a man hath no preeminence above a beast:
for all is vanity.

All go unto one place;
all are of the dust
and all turn to dust again.

The DVD is not anamorphic. There are no significant extras. The picture looks a bit faded and soft. I've heard some say that this Region 1 disc appears to have been copied from the Region 2 PAL release. Still, it's an excellent film and well worth owning. December 7, 2007

Cast of Characters

"This Man Must Die" has an odd title but a story that bears it out. We discover pretty quickly what the plot is as we follow a man who is driven to find the person who killed his son. The father's focus and determination leads him toward the killer (obviously that has to happen or else this wouldn't be much of a movie). The bad guy turns out to be an absolutely terrible person (which I thought was a bit over done). However, this gets us all the more involved with the mission and a lot less so with the moral implications. That's probably as much of a summation as I dare make. There is a lot to be surprized about in this movie.

After seeing three of Chabrol's movies, I have come to appreciate his focus on relationships. There certainly are some strained (and strange) ones in this movie but it is in focussing on these relationships that we find the true excellence in his movies. He doesn't generally handle the suspense and mystery nearly as well as Hitchcock (or others) but we come to know the characters a lot better than most other movies in his genre. November 8, 2007

This Man Must Die

One of Chabrol's most intriguing and disturbing films, "This Man" is a melodramatic suspense tale in the mold of Hitchcock and Lang, yet quieter and more pensive. Duchaussoy is first rate playing the devastated father who's bent on exacting justice from his son's killer, no matter how far afield it leads him, or how tangled the situation becomes. Yanne also gives a nuanced performance as his despicable yet complex antagonist, and Cellier is excellent, too, as a witness with secrets of her own. Chabrol shows great restraint in concocting this slow-burning thriller, keeping you guessing until the very end. For an engrossing, nuanced whodunit, find "This Man." July 2, 2007

A Marvellous TAle of Grief and Revenge

Charles Thenier (Michel Duchaussoy) is an affluent, middle-aged writer of children's stories whose son has just been killed in a hit and run road accident in Brittany. The police draw a blank at finding the culpable driver. But Thenier, driven by a vengeful obsession, stumbles on a piece of information that leads him to the man he is after. This turns out to be Paul Decourt (Jean Yanne), a wealthy garage owner and a loathsome bully who tyrannizes over his family. It is easy enough for Thenier's hatred of Decourt to survive meeting him but he swiftly finds himself forming emotional ties to the latter's sister-in-law, glamorous TV actress Helene Lanson (Caroline Cellier) and to his deeply alienated son Philippe (Marc di Napoli).

In Britain this film is known as `The Beast Must Die'. The latter title is better. Partly because it is the original title of the English novel (by Nicholas Blake) on which the film is based. Partly because unlike the American title it doesn't make a nonsense of the title's allusion to `Ecclesiastes' as paraphrased by Brahms for the piece Chabrol incorporates in the sound track: as translated in the movie, `Il faut que la bete meure; mais l'homme aussi. L'un et l'autre doivent mourir.' `This man must die' doesn't really get it, does it? (Oh and by the way, be careful you don't go confusing this film with `The Beast Must Die' a very silly, but nonetheless very enjoyable and in any case extremely different British werewolf flick from 1974).

The likes of Quentin Tarantino and Chan-wook Park have made vengeance a fashionable subject for movies these days but you'll have to look a long way to find a film that tackles the subject as intelligently, honestly and beautifully as this. It's like a variant on "Kill Bill" but with a moral and intellectual maturity Tarantino will never come close to. It's one of the best of the Chabrol movies I know, wonderfully atmospheric and with Charol's fabulous flair for the small quirky details of the more or less everyday French live whose explosive disruptions form the subject matter of his often, and certainly this is a case in point, wonderful dramas.
June 8, 2005

One Of Chabrol's Best

Early on in this Claude Chabrol film someone is murdered. For those of us who watch Chabrol's films that is not a surprise. What is a surprise however is who and why they die.

The victim was a young boy and his father, Charles (Michel Duchaussoy, "The Unfaithful Wife", "Nada") has vowed to find the person responsible and kill them.

At this point the film turns into a maze as Charles tries to find the killer. Soon events lead him to Helene (Caroline Cellier) who was with the killer at the time of the accident. Charles pretends to be in love with Helene so she will lead him to Paul (Jean Yanne).

"This Man Must Die" does have some shortcomings. I thought it was just too wild a coincident that Charles just happens to run into a man who knows the killer. He actually remembers the date when he meet him. Though of course I understand without a scene like this how would the film get from point "A" to "B"? I also found the music too forceful at times. It expresses more than there needs to be expressed. And a scene in which Charles and Helene get into a fight left me wondering why does she stay with him?

But these grips simply do not compare to the film's over effect. Claude Chabrol is one of my favorite directors. Film after film I found myself entertained. I love watching new movies by him. In "This Man Must Die" Chabrol demonstrates how he is capable of handling such material. He creates tension and then releases it only to slowly build it up again in the following shot.

I also liked the film's small touches. In a scene where Charles goes to meet Helene's family he is shown is room and on the wall there is a picture of a naked woman next to a cross. What a contradiction I thought. What is Chabrol trying to tell us. Then I thought isn't Charles a bit of a contradiction himself? Here he is meet this woman's family while she thinks he loves her but he is actually using her to find his son's killer.

And what about Paul. After we see the way he treats his wife and son we start to think maybe it wouldn't be such a bad idea if Charles did kill him. We doubt anyone, besides his mother, would really miss him. He's such a mean spirited person. And that's putting it mildly.

Over all though I think "This Man Must Die" is one of Chabrol's best. It was made at a time when Chabrol was gaining popularity. Already under his belt were such titles as "The Unfaithful Wife", "Les Biches" and "Le Beau Serge". And this movie ranks up with those films. Here is a wonderful film for people to start their Chabrol collection with.

Bottom-line: Very entertaining Claude Chabrol film that should please those who are not familiar with the director's work. Easily ranks among his finest films. May 25, 2005

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