Les innocents aux mains sales aka Dirty Hands (1975) Noir on the French Riviera

"A Côte d'Azur Noir"

Written and Directed by Claude Chabrol (Le Beau Serge, Une partie de plaisir, Violette Nozière). 

Chabrol was a French New Wave director, he started out as a critic for Cahiers du Cinéma. Thrillers were his trademark. Le Beau Serge is considered the first New Wave Film. 

Adapted from Richard Neely's novel "The Damned Innocents" with additional dialog by Claude Chabrol. Cinematography was by Jean Rabier, Music composed by Pierre Jansen.

The film stars Romy Schneider (Max and the Junkmen, Oui?) as Julie Wormser, Rod Steiger (Cry Terror, The Pawnbroker, In The Heat of The Night, Duck You Sucker) as Louis Wormser, Jean Rochefort as Albert Légal, the advocate, François Maistre as Lamy, the police detective, Hans Christian Blech as the judge, François Perrot as Georges Thorent, the notary, and Paolo Giusti as Jeff Marle.

Romy Schneider as Julie Wormser

Rod Steiger as Louis Wormser

Paolo Giusti as Jeff Marle.

Chabrol's style smacks you in the face, right at the get go. We get a long opening sequence, very much important to the narrative of the film slashed and juxtaposed with short interludes of the films opening credits. I was impressed, and this was the first film I've seen of Chabrol, so whether this type of stuff is his trademark it's impossible for me to say. I'll leave that to folks more familiar with Chabrol for now.

Story

We see a sunny idyllic headland of typical Mediterranean maquis and scrublands, with umbrella pines, cork oaks and then pan to an estate on the Côte d'Azur. 

We hear the surf rolling and birds chirping. We pan to swards of grass between patches of olive and oak trees, Canary Island date palms, and screening hedges, all below a turquoise sky. We continue to pan to a woman, Julie Wormser, a blonde, lying on a blue towel, sunning herself. She's wearing a silver chain and sunglasses and nothing else. Beside the towel is a straw sun hat. 

A close up of her face reveals that she seems to be dozing. We cut to a red, bird shaped kite fluttering it the sky as it loses the updraft and drops down, landing gently on the blondes derrière. It doesn't appear to have waken her up. 

We cut to a young man Jeff Marle, coming up through some olive trees winding up his kite string following the string trail to his kite. 

He's wearing a leather jacket over a white Che Guevara T-shirt and bellbottom jeans. 70's cool.

When he gets up to the grass of the terrace, he spots the woman and his kite. She is laying near the corner of the villa, He approaches cautiously, maybe thinking he can retrieve his kite without waking her all the while eyeballing Julie.  But she is awake.

Jeff: Pardon me madame.

Julie: Do you want your kite?

Jeff:  Yes. 

Julie [lifting her head up, sliding her sunglasses to her forehead, and scoping out Jeff]: Well come and get it.

Jeff walks closer till he is right beside her and reaches down and picks up his kite.

Jeff: Thankyou. 

Julie brazenly flipping over to show Jeff everything she's got. while the camera zooms in on her face. She has green eyes. 

Julie: Is there anything else you want? 

Julie smiles and the focus blurs, the screen goes gold and both the score and the titles start. Romy Schneider and Rod Steiger dans "Les innocents aux mains sales." we get a few more credits and cut to a close up of Louis Wormser. 

He wearing a black seaman's cap, a black windbreaker over a blue polo shirt, and he's wearing a rising sun medallion around his neck and a silver belt on his jeans, classic '70s boho-chic.  We can hear that he's walking up the steps the villa.

We cut to a great room where Julie now fully dressed in a black down with sparkly silver straps is having a drink with Jeff. When Louis walks in Julie introduces Louis to Jeff.  

Julie: Louis this is Jeff he is a writer. He rents the little blue house and flies kites. 

Louis: Yes I saw you swimming in the morning.

Jeff: I swim a lot.

Louis: Would you like a drink?

Jeff: I have one.

Louis: Ok. So I'll take care of myself. [He walks over to the bottles]  I suppose my charming wife has told you that I drink a lot. [pours himself a drink] I drink to your health. 

Louis starts laughing. Jeff asks why he's laughing but before we get an answer, we cut to a shot of Julies back and Jeff playing with Julie's spaghetti straps, and then immediately blur to gold again and more of the title sequence and more score.

We cut back to the great room and Louis seems to be  half passed out on the couch. Louis is relating that you can't imagine what it feels like, your heart explodes and then everything goes black, and you die.

When Jeff asks why drink then, Louis replies because of the pain. Then he asks Julie to come closer and asks her why do they not make love and why won't she let him touch her?

Julie: Stop drinking. Its too stupid, Louis why do you put yourself in such a state?

Louis replies. That's a good question. He kisses Julie's hand and then seems to pass out again. Jeff askes if he's always like this. Julie answers yes and then asks Jeff to help her get him to bed. But Louis comes to life again and walks himself up to his bedroom.

Back in the great room. 

Jeff:  How can you stand it

Julie: I cant. I've had enough.

Jeff walks over to the light switch and shuts of the lights. The score starts again and Julie walks onto the shag rug and as the horns come in she lays down on her back on the rug and begins to pull up her dress.

Jeff joins her. Here, the screen darkens and superimposed over the lovers is the last of the credits  "Une Film de Claude Chabrol."

We cut to the Mediterranean and then again pan across the maquis and scrubland landscape to the top floor of the villa. Julie and Jeff are laying naked on blue sheets in Julies bedroom.

Julie: He hasn't touched me since his heart attack. He sold his business and we settled here. Now he wants us to go to Martinique. He probably wants to replace his whiskey for rum. 

Jeff: He'll never get there alive. He won't hold up very long at this pace. Why did you marry him he's at least fifteen years older than you?

Julie: Eighteen. He was very kind to me. I was supposed to do a film and he finance it. I was just starting out, and didn't want much, anyway. He was really very nice. Not great in bed, [pokes at Jeff] but nice. So lets talk about you what do you do besides fly kites?

Jeff tells her that he writes stupid shit, and has no talent. He explains that he gets easily bored, but that she excites him.

Jeff: He won't be around much longer, take my word for it. He won't last long. 

Here we cut back to a shot of the Mediterranean and superimposed is "Three Weeks Later" 

Louis and Julie are on a terrace. Louis is fiddling around with one of his fishing poles out by the wall, and Julie is reading under a tree. We hear the bell ring and Julie gets up to answer. We cut to Louis who checks his watch, and smiles. 

Its a car dealer delivering a 1974 Datsun 260Z 2+2 for Julie, a present from Louis. We watch as she gets in and looks it over, then we cut to Julie running out to Louis to thank him. 

We cut to another evening scene. We see Louis approach the villa through the glass. He's got what looks like a red jean jacket an a purple shirt worn disco style over his jacket. He got on the rising sun medallion and the silver belt.

He's returning home from his pub crawl in town. When he comes into the great room, through the glass door, Julie hands him her drink. 

He takes a swallow and shakes his head at the taste. Louis, tells them he feels ready move, to go. He's got itchy feet. When he asks Jeff if he knows what he means, Jeff answers yes.

Louis goes on to state that drinking makes him tired. He knock back his drink. Louis at the stairway excuses himself, tells them he talks too much, and then says goodnight. He blows Julie a kiss and then turns and starts heading up to his room. 

We then cut to a nice composition of Louis just exiting on the left, while Julie and Jeff in one corner of the fame on the right are intently listening, with the now empty space save for the sound of footsteps climbing in the other corner. 

When the steps fade, Jeff walks over and looks up the spiral staircase. We then zoom in on Julie. 

It goes from bad to Noirsville when Jeff rejoins Julie. 

Jeff: The old man has gone to bed. 

Julie: Jeff, please, Jeff stay with me, don't go I beg you. I beg you please don't leave me alone.

Jeff: No, we are already behind schedule.

Julie: Jeff.

Jeff: No we can't see each other for three or four days. Not even call each other. Maybe I'll just leave for a few days, until the accident becomes official, huh? I'll let you know one way or the other. 

Julie: You must really

Jeff:  Yes, yes. He could wake up, think of what I have to do.

Julie: I'll have to stay alone with him all night. Can't you come back sooner?

Jeff: God you know we can't. We have to have Mother Chauvinet as an alibi. No one can even suspect that we were in this together. It's eleven thirty, in two hours, The thing is on the corner of his desk. Anyhow I am leaving I will see you later . 

Noirsville

Claude Chabrol has directed a very good Noir Thriller with obvious connections to The Postman Rings Twice. There's quite a few twists to keep things interesting. The cinematography is very nice. Steiger looks a bit ridiculous as a wannabe hipster but its the character he's playing. Romy Schneider is great as the Femme Fatale while Paolo Giusti is convincing as her lover. 7-8/10.