This Man Must Die
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''This Man Must Die'' (), also titled ''Killer!'' in the UK, is a 1969 French–Italian psychological thriller film directed by
Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...
. It is based on the 1938 novel '' The Beast Must Die'' by
Cecil Day-Lewis Cecil Day-Lewis (or Day Lewis; 27 April 1904 – 22 May 1972), often written as C. Day-Lewis, was an Anglo-Irish poet and Poet Laureate of the United Kingdom from 1968 until his death in 1972. He also wrote mystery stories under the pseudony ...
, writing as Nicholas Blake. The story follows a widower who, obsessed with revenge after his only son is killed in a hit-and-run incident, tracks down the driver with the intent to kill him.


Plot

Returning from the beach, Charles Thénier's young son Michel is killed by a hit-and-run driver in a sports car. Charles vows to have his revenge, keeping a journal in which he states his intention to kill the offender once he finds him. The police investigation is fruitless. Charles thinks the guilty party may run a garage, since there is no record of a car going in for repairs. By chance, while pursuing this hunch, he discovers that the actress Hélène Lanson was the passenger in a car that was damaged on the day of his son's death. Using his pen-name Marc Andrieux, he seduces her and discovers that the driver was her brother-in-law Paul Decourt. Hélène confesses that she has had depressive anxiety recently. Charles presses her to explain more but couldn't get more information. Eventually he overcomes Hélène's reluctance and arranges a trip for both of them to visit her sister's family in Brittany. Charles discovers that Paul is detestable, cruel to his wife and hated by his teenage son Philippe. He also observes that Paul is a terrible womanizer and confirms that Hélène once slept with Paul. He has conflicting thoughts as to whether or not he will kill Paul but, although hesitatingly, rescues him from a cliff-fall. Philippe confides to Charles his own desire to kill his father. Charles decides to kill Paul in a staged sailing accident and buys a boat for that purpose. However, while at sea, Paul pulls a gun on him and reveals that he has read Charles's journal and passed it to his solicitor to take to the police should something happen to him. After returning to the harbour, Paul throws Charles out of his house. Charles appears to abandon his plan to murder Paul and drives away with Hélène. In a roadside restaurant, a television announcer reports Paul's death from poisoning and appeals for Charles and Hélène to return, which they do. Charles argues with the police that it would be foolhardy for him to kill Paul when he knew the journal would reach them. However, the police puts forward a theory that Charles has planned for the diary to be discovered and to use the argument to deflect their suspicions. Charles was arrested, but the police could not find the poisoned bottle Paul was supposed to die from. (Charles left before Paul was poisoned.) He was released soon after as Philippe confesses to the murder and provides the key evidence (the poisoned medication bottle) as a proof. Back at their hotel, Charles is weary and promises to tell Hélène the entire story the next day. She wakes to find his note explaining that Philippe has confessed to the crime in order to save him and he (Charles) is the real murderer. He tells her to share his confession with the police and that he will punish himself and never be seen again. While the film shows him sailing oceanward, Charles recites in a
voice-over Voice-over (also known as off-camera or off-stage commentary) is a production technique used in radio, television, filmmaking, theatre, and other media in which a descriptive or expository voice that is not part of the narrative (i.e., non- ...
a line from the ''
Vier ernste Gesänge ''Vier ernste Gesänge'' (''Four Serious Songs''), Op. 121, is a cycle of four songs for bass and piano by Johannes Brahms. As in his '' Ein deutsches Requiem'', the texts are compiled from the Luther Bible. Three songs deal with death and the ...
'' by
Johannes Brahms Johannes Brahms (; ; 7 May 1833 – 3 April 1897) was a German composer, virtuoso pianist, and conductor of the mid-Romantic period (music), Romantic period. His music is noted for its rhythmic vitality and freer treatment of dissonance, oft ...
: "For that which befalls man befalls the beast, as the one dies, so dies the other".


Cast

* Michel Duchaussoy as Charles Thénier * Caroline Cellier as Hélène Lanson *
Jean Yanne Jean Yanne (; born Jean Roger Gouyé ; 18 July 1933 – 23 May 2003) was a French actor, screenwriter, producer, director and composer. In 1972, he won the Cannes Film Festival Award for Best Actor for his performance in the film '' We Won't ...
as Paul Decourt * Anouk Ferjac as Jeanne Decourt * Marc Di Napoli as Philippe Decourt * Louise Chevalier as Madame Levenes * Dominique Zardi as Police Inspector * Maurice Pialat as Police Commissioner


Background

''This Man Must Die'' opened in French cinemas on 5 September 1969, achieving a total of 1,092,910 admissions in the domestic market. The Johannes Brahms song "Denn es gehet dem Menschen wie dem Vieh" from his ''Vier ernste Gesänge'', eponymous for the film's title and used as a recurring motif, is sung by Kathleen Ferrier.


Reception

Writing for ''
The New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...
'' upon the film's opening in New York, critic
Roger Greenspun Roger Greenspun (December 16, 1929 – June 18, 2017) was an American journalist and film critic, best known for his work with ''The New York Times'' in which he reviewed near 400 films, particularly in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and for '' ...
gave ''This Man Must Die'' a positive, though in parts restrained review. While calling it "surely one of the best new movies" which "adds wonderful moment to wonderful moment" and features "an idiomatic performance" by Jean Yanne, Greenspun also notes a shedding of "ironic strangeness" and a move towards the direct and sentimental in Chabrol's methods, and an ending whose images fall behind the director's usual technical capabilities. Roger Ebert gives the film 4 out of 4 stars, calling it "''a macabre, bizarre study of the hazards of revenge, and it thrills us not with chases or cliff-hangers.... but with the relationship between good and evil people.... In the end, that's what makes Chabrol so fascinating. In being as concerned with the nuances of daily life as he is with the vast fact of murder, he makes the murder itself more horrible, and the revenge more ambiguous.''"


References


External links

* {{Paul Gégauff 1969 films Films based on British novels French psychological thriller films 1960s French-language films Italian psychological thriller films 1960s psychological thriller films Films directed by Claude Chabrol Films with screenplays by Paul Gégauff Films set in Brittany 1960s Italian films 1960s French films Films scored by Pierre Jansen