Bonnes Femmes, Les
Director: Claude Chabrol
Year Released: 1960
Rating: 3.0
Several working girls slog through their days in a small Parisian shop only to wander around at night, looking for male companionship and a general sense of social acceptance. It's a disarming early picture from Chabrol, and one that's a challenge to 'accept': the murder that concludes the movie washes over the 'lighter' elements of it and more or less argues that the quest for one's dream lover - and/or emotional fulfillment - can actually lead to self-ruin. Most of the men in this are comically brutal - the controlling fiancé, the motorcyclist, the creepy boss, the mentally defective stalkers who make a scene at the pool - and the women are basically naïve 'victims' - this is a bit of an oversimplification of the male-female dynamic, so it might be best to think of this as a kind of ... moral tale.
