The latest film from uncompromising French master Claude Chabrol was never going to be a comedy of the belly-laugh ha-ha variety. And yet there’s plenty of wry amusement to be had in A Comedy Of Power’s lively depiction of political skullduggery and Gallic jadedness. Michel Humeau (Berléand, excellent) is a corporate bigwig with a penchant for dipping his hand in the till, wining and dining mistresses and extravagances that might bring a blush to the cheeks of Nicolas Sarkozy. Unfortunately for him, go-getter magistrate Jeanne Charmant-Killman has been keeping tabs on the swimming pools, the saunas and the orange groves that seem to comprise his weekly shopping lists. Even more unfortunately for him, Chabrol regular Isabelle Huppert turns up in fierce form to essay the magistrate in question.
At 54, Mme. Huppert, whose psychotic, heightened performances have enlivened films such as La Cérémonie, The Piano Teacher and Ma Mére, can still scare the horses and look fabulous in a minxy business suit. As the ball-busting Charmant-Killman, her relentless pursuit of corruption soon prompts Humeau and his fat cat buddies – including any number of ‘sleazy politicians’ and her superiors - to circle the wagons. In the resulting battle of wits and dirty tricks, brakes are tampered with and filing cabinets are duly rifled.
It all ends rather too abruptly and a subplot involving our heroine’s husband and nephew doesn’t quite capture the imagination as it might. Still, you’d be hard pushed not to enjoy the anti-Ally McBeal at the centre of it all.