Synopsis
Cop au Vin (Poulet au vinaigre, 1985) is Claude Chabrol's wry French mystery, ready to watch online on iFILM. In a drowsy provincial town, three local bigwigs want to buy up an old house, but the stubborn wheelchair-bound widow who owns it and her postman son refuse to sell.
Then the accidents start. A butcher dies in a car crash; a woman burns to death. In rolls Inspector Lavardin, a detective with no patience for the rulebook. Jean Poiret plays him as a charming bully who threatens, snoops and twists witnesses' arms, plainly enjoying the fear he stirs up. The young postman Louis (Lucas Belvaux) is the first suspect, though the town is full of people who stood to gain from a neighbor's death.
Chabrol, often called the French Hitchcock, cares less about whodunit than about the petty greed festering under small-town calm. Stéphane Audran and Michel Bouquet sharpen the venom. Audiences liked Lavardin enough that he came back in his own film and a TV series. A dry, ironic crime piece for fans of European classics. Stream Cop au Vin (1985) online on iFILM.
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