poe426 In this Idiot Nation of ours, corruption (on a global scale) is taken for granted. The GOBs (Good Old Boys, formerly known as the Grand Old Party) have raped and pillaged this country for three decades, now- and yet, not one single filmmaker (aside from a couple of documentary movie makers) has has the guts to step up and say anything about it. (John Carpenter and George Romero have given us Reaganvilles and theocracies- in THEY LIVE and ESCAPE FROM L.A.- and war between the Haves and the Have-nots- LAND OF THE DEAD- but where are the others? If there's anyone else doing anything even remotely in tune with Our Times, they're flying well under the radar.) "Morphine doesn't help," Claude Chabrol says in one interview: "It just stops the pain." It's eight o'clock in the morning, folks- time to wake up.

film_riot Claude Chabrol uses a very unexcited style to show how corruption penetrates industry and politics in Western societies, in this film by the example of France, but applicable for all states. And he gives a portrait of a strong woman, played by the ever-fantastic Isabelle Huppert, who comes to clean up but soon reaches a point where she has to see how many people are in this system and defending it. You never really get warm with Huppert's character, firstly because the camera is very distanced and just observes, and secondly because of the character itself. She never has the chance to show emotions, every sign of it would be considered a weakness and would be exploited by her enemies. This being the way to survive in her job, it seriously harms her private life. Her marriage is destroyed by it, and friendship is hard to get with many sneaky one's trying to use her. Definitely worth seeing and an interesting look behind the curtains. But of course, this film "doesn't describe concrete events of the day."

Paul Creeden I confess right from the beginning to being a fan of Isabelle Huppert. I am also a student of Claude Chabrol films. I say 'student', because his films are intellectual and challenging in nature. This film is a film of our times. And its themes are also timeless. The flawed protagonist, Huppert, lives shamelessly in front of the camera. She is very human, as well as idealistic. And her idealism is personal and competitive, as well as moralistic. Chabrol has captured grand corruption in a simple narrative about people alone and in conversation. Never slick, always homely and familiar. Isabelle Huppert's performance is tempered and unusually restrained. Her aptitude for endowing her characters with mannerism and eccentricity by using simple gestures and facial expressions is in full play here. This is a film that requires effort to appreciate, but it leaves you feeling quite full.

writers_reign There's a lovely tongue-in-cheek disclaimer at the beginning of this film to the effect that neither the events nor the characters depicted are based on real people or events, especially, nudge, nudge, wink, wink, the Elf scandal which rocked France lo, these few moons ago. No film of course should presuppose a previous knowledge on the part of the audience; the average film-goer outside France will have little or no knowledge of Elf and the French Government Ministers involved in corruption just as the average film-goer will know of Marie Antoinette only that she once said 'let them eat cake' and by coincidence Sophia Coppola's take on Marie Antoinette opens here, in London, tomorrow, whilst L'Ivresse du pouvoir is showing as part of the London Film Festival so it's a case of how do you like your corruption, in the 20th century heart of France or 17th century suburban Paris, that's about Versailles of it. What matters in either case is the quality of the film-making; is it good, bad or indifferent. I've yet to see the Coppola but the Chabrol is out of the right bottle. Not a lot happens dramatically despite a nobbled car and a leap from a window, it's basically cat and mouse between Huppert's incorruptible judge and the highly corruptible ministers/big business she's attempting to nail - if she IS incorruptible Huppert is not above getting high on her power to imprison some of the fattest cats with their whiskers in the cream (yet again a title has been badly translated; the literal meaning of the French title is the drunkenness of power or, more colloquially, drunk on power) which makes the French title more clear. Anybody who expects Huppert to turn in even a mediocre performance is seriously stupid and here she is right on top of her game well supported by Francois Berleand, who only a couple of years ago played her husband in Les Soeurs fachees, and here proves, as they used to say in Zenda, an opponent worthy of her steel. Go see, trust me.