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“In my entire career, I’ve never met such a nervous actor.” – Claude Chabrol on Jean Poiret
This summer, Spectacle is proud to present our first investigation into Claude Chabrol’s off-beat murder mystery series starring Jean Poiret as Inspecteur Lavardin, an unconventional detective, who is sometimes referred to as the French Columbo (if Columbo broke laws indiscriminately and brought his suspects out back to beat them to confession).
While traditional in their portrayals of the murder mystery subgenre, these skillfully directed films told through Chabrol’s voyeuristic lens are actually, at their core, comedic satires aimed at the deep-rooted hypocrisies of bourgeois provincialism. Filmed in the mid-1980s and later reprised as a short-lived French television series in 1988, POULET AU VINAIGRE (1985) and INSPECTEUR LAVARDIN (1986) are perfect murder-mystery fare for cooling off during the late summer heat.
Special thanks to Arrow Video and the American Genre Film Archive.