Fleur du mal, La 2003

John Monaghan, Detroit Free Press: The strength of this movie is how it starts as a standard whodunit only to become something else: a cunning Chabrol study of incest and old money peppered with a wicked sense of humor. Read more

Marta Barber, Miami Herald: Told without drama, as if this were just an ordinary family, it is the subtleties of the details that win you over. Read more

Ella Taylor, L.A. Weekly: Although impeccably acted and absorbing enough as a family drama, the movie is superfluously littered with broad hints as to its deeper meanings. Read more

Michael Wilmington, Chicago Tribune: Stylish, ingenious and gleaming with charm, wit and malice, it's another expert blend of domestic drama and crime thriller, a vivisection of the bourgeoisie. Read more

Elvis Mitchell, New York Times: Ms. Flon almost achieves for the movie what her character does for her relatives -- she's just not enough. Read more

Wesley Morris, Boston Globe: As usual, Chabrol manages to get us worked up over these people, but any further investment is hard to justify. Read more

Kevin Thomas, Los Angeles Times: This is another gratifying gem from a master. Read more

Michael Booth, Denver Post: Leave reason behind, back in steerage class, and simply breathe in the foibles of the (upper) crust on this creme brulee. Read more

Lisa Schwarzbaum, Entertainment Weekly: Wonderfully mordant, dry-eyed family saga. Read more

Jane Sumner, Dallas Morning News: This three-generation melodrama, set in the Bordeaux region, may be just an elegant shadow of 'the gallic Hitchcock,' but even pale and dry, it's still Chabrol and sippable. Read more

Gene Seymour, Newsday: With characteristic dispassion and Chardonnay-dry wit, Chabrol gleefully pries open another can of worms buried within the history of a well-to-do provincial family. Read more

Bob Campbell, Newark Star-Ledger: The 73-year-old Chabrol has dashed off a near-abstract but infinitely intriguing formulation on guilt, recurrence and the perpetual present. Read more

Jami Bernard, New York Daily News: While it's not quite as satisfying as his underappreciated Merci pour le chocolat (2000), it's still nasty fun at the expense of the upper middle class. Read more

Andrew Sarris, New York Observer: I would prefer to think of it as a masterly work of the artist's late period rather than as the tired product of his old age. Read more

Roger Ebert, Chicago Sun-Times: I feel such an affection for Chabrol and his work that I probably can't see The Flower of Evil as it would be experienced by a first-time viewer. Read more

G. Allen Johnson, San Francisco Chronicle: Chabrol's examination of intergenerational guilt takes awhile to arrive at the station, but the characters and dialogue -- screenplay by Caroline Eliacheff -- are sophisticated and properly witty. Read more

Colin Covert, Minneapolis Star Tribune: A minor work from a major talent. Read more

St. Louis Post-Dispatch: Read more

Time Out: Read more

Lisa Nesselson, Variety: Read more

Jessica Winter, Village Voice: Another tastefully baroque roasting of petty bourgeois rites within suffocating domestic environs. Read more