Jean-Denis Bonan's A Woman Kills (original title La femme bourreau) was a French crime thriller that spent forty five years in limbo. Originally created in May 1968, during a period of civil unrest, the film never saw a proper release due to controversy. Now, fifty five years later the black and white film is due to have a limited edition Blu-ray release in a brand new HD restoration. Very experimental in style, this was certainly a strange film, which thankfully benefitted by a pretty decent final act.
Set in Paris, this takes place soon after a woman, Héléne Picard, had been executed for a series of prostitute murders that had shocked the populace. It was hoped that would be the end to it, but the authorities are disturbed to discover that the crimes are still continuing despite them having been convinced of Picard's guilt. The executioner, Louis Guilbeau (Claude Merlin) begins a relationship with the investigating officer, Solange (Solange Pradel), who begins to suspect there is more to the man than there initially appeared to be.
Very experimental, very arthouse in style, something that can be picked up from the soundtrack alone, which is made up of lots of discordant jazz music. The film follows a bizarre format, with a stern and serious narrator (Bernard Letrou) talking over the events like it was a procedural crime documentary. Characters get introduced by him, giving lots of needless details such as birthplace and height, which creates a cold impassionate feel, This happens during the murder scenes, and even during the chase scenes, where the narrator instead begins to describe the internal thought processes of the characters.
The few natural feeling scenes occur mainly between Solange and the very creepy Louis, but even these feel like snapshots in time, such as multiple shots of Solange laying scantily dressed on a bed while smiling at someone off camera. Of course, being an experimental French film there is nudity, but tastefully done at the least.
Without going into spoilers too much, it was obvious where this was heading. That may well have been the point however as the twist occurs roughly halfway into the seventy minute movie and hardly came out of nowhere. This leads into a much more enjoyable second half, with Merlin getting some great scenes. The majority of the final act is one long chase sequence down squalid side alleys, and across crumbling rooftops, leading to a final showdown. There is a body count, but most of the kills are only partially shown, but this was effective enough. I will say I did find the first half very slow, and some of the music choices were dreadful. There are a series of songs sang throughout that just had the absolute worst lyrics. Maybe they just didn't translate well, but they ruined all the scenes they popped up in, one example had some guy singing about how large people are unable to row in small boats due to them sinking them, so weird in a bad way.
A Woman Kills was a curio from the past that did have some interesting moments, especially the second half where thankfully things began to get more exciting. I did struggle a bit with the first half, the experimental nature of how this was paced not making for the most exciting of times. Still, it's good this lost French thriller has finally been able to get seen by those who would want to see it, and with the Blu-ray release on February 7th thanks to Radiance Films, it is the best way to see it.
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