Comedy of Power (2005)
80 %
Reviews Counted: 35 Fresh: 28 Rotten:7 Average Rating: 6.5/10
Rated: Not Rated
Runtime: 1 hr 50 mins
Synopsis: Celebrated French director Claude Chabrol (LA CEREMONIE) teams up with his regular muse, Isabelle Huppert, for this scandal-driven drama. [More]
Genre: Foreign Films
Starring: Isabelle Huppert, François Berléand, Marilyn Canto, Robin Renucci, Thomas Chabrol
Director: Claude Chabrol
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Reviews
Comment
Very little happens, and it has the look of a TV movie; yet the pace never seems to let up, the screen never seems empty, and its grip on your attention doesn't falter.
12/14/07
The script is dapper and the story slick. But it is Huppert who gives it heft, style and star power.
12/14/07
Chabrol is intriguing and relevant, but the power and the comedy are dissipated.
12/14/07
A Comedy Of Power fails to dig deep into this idea, or into the life of its protagonist. It's largely left to the charismatic Huppert to make this sly but oddly slight drama a decent watch.
12/13/07
No laughs – but still plenty to like in this diverting and insightful thriller that plays out in the higher echelons of the French judiciary and Parisian world of high business.
12/13/07
With Isabelle Huppert holding court and irresistibly dominating the proceedings, this is never really about the crimes she investigates - but it probably should have been, as the film, for all the quality of its performances, is a trial for the viewer.
12/06/07
Top Critic
Chabrol film based on true life incident, the investigation of crooked executives at Elf Aquitaine, the French version of Enron. Isabelle Huppert is terrific starring as chief magistrate.
06/08/07
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05/12/07
Top Critic
Chabrol observes the power games and intimidations with a matter-of-fact directness...
05/09/07
It is long past time to recognize Claude Chabrol and Isabelle Huppert as one of the cinema's great actress-director collaborations.
04/20/07
Top Critic
Chabrol manages a brisk, light tone, even though the movie is mostly talk, and Huppert turns in a powerhouse performance.
04/19/07
Top Critic
...explores how power is never really diminished - it just changes hands.
03/02/07
It's not often that you see the craft of cinema so perfectly executed -- or a group of fancy scoundrels so ruthlessly caught and skewered. Comedy of Power, like all of [Cluade] Chabrol's Hitchcockian films, is dark, smart and delicious.
03/01/07
Top Critic
Although Chabrol is celebrated as a master of suspense, his great movies, like this one and the underappreciated masterpiece Madame Bovary (also starring Huppert), meticulously expose the mechanisms of our entrapment.
03/01/07
This movie can't commit to a genre, let alone a logical sequence or complete idea. But there is a wisdom in its blasé assessments and frivolous air: What's the point; where's the wine?
02/16/07
Top Critic
By the sheer strength of [Isabelle Huppert's] performance alone, Comedy of Power is Chabrol’s best film since 1995’s La Cérémonie.
02/03/07
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