Synopsis
A hatter in a provincial town (Michel Serrault) leads the life of a respectable citizen but is in fact a serial murderer. The only person to suspect this is his neighbour the tailor (Charles Asnavour).
1982 ‘Les Fantômes du chapelier’ Directed by Claude Chabrol
A hatter in a provincial town (Michel Serrault) leads the life of a respectable citizen but is in fact a serial murderer. The only person to suspect this is his neighbour the tailor (Charles Asnavour).
Die Fantome des Hutmachers, Los fantasmas del Chapelier, I fantasmi del cappellaio, Призраки шляпника, Os Fantasmas do Chapeleiro, 帽匠的幽灵
Cinematic Time Capsule
1982 Marathon - Film #55
”I am worried about this strangler”
The town’s hatter is a very respectable citizen… who also just happens to be the town’s serial killer.
The story plays out like a provincial town cross between Psycho and The Talented Mr. Ripley. Including an intriguing first half with a fascinating game of cat & mouse between the hatter and his suspicious neighbor, the tailor.
And even though it grows a bit long in the tooth towards the end, it’s always interesting to see what kind of murderous antics director, Claude Chabrol likes to get up to.
”I do what I must and that’s it’
Chabrol's mannerisms and small town dynamics are the most amusing things here. Not compelling enough as a thriller but interesting as a black comedy.
In "Die Fantome des Hutmachers" blickt Claude Chabrol erneut hinter die Fassade des Bürgerlichen. Diesmal ist es ein Mann und Mörder, der glaubt, sich seine Taten aufgrund seiner gesellschaftlichen Stellung ungefährdet erlauben zu können. Kontrastiert durch einen Beobachter, der glaubt, sich aufgrund seiner niedrigen gesellschaftlichen Stellung die Meldung des Verbrechens nicht erlauben zu können. Ein Plot, der zwar interessanter ist als der der meisten Krimis, allerdings nicht so kunstvoll wie in den besten Werken Chabrols dargeboten wird.
I’m surprised to see reviews calling this a failed thriller— I took it as a very droll black comedy that purposefully undermines its thriller elements. Nothing really happens until the last twenty minutes or so and there’s little sense of suspense. Most of the movie is our strangler talking to a mannequin, playing bridge, or psychologically terrorizing the tailor who knows his secret. One of Chabrol’s strangest efforts, and I like it quite a bit.
That Claude Chabrol is not just a thriller director should be well known. Even if he has messed up one project or another, his films always go beyond the genre. That's because of the milieu, the locations, the psychology. A special culmination of all elements can be found here in "The Hatter’s Ghost". A psychological thriller in which the psycho is eight times more important than the rest.
Because hatter Léon is a bit weird. Although he leads the upscale life of a bourgeois in the sleepy province, he is secretly responsible for a whole series of murders. His neighbour, the tailor Kachoudas, seems to be suspicious, but Léon doesn't mind. On the contrary, he enjoys performing the bloody theatre…
At least as close to Le Beau Serge as to Simenon: Chabrol's facility with small town ritual and gesture at its most studied, daily cérémonies that are lethal in their comfort. Serrault works hard to externalize the inner life of a Simenon protagonist who, typical for Georges, appears an obvious loon to us but moves through respectable society with ease. That works better on the page, I'd imagine, as Simenon tends towards tightly coiled interiority where we're privy to our man's rantings, but recognize that they rarely seep out far enough for anyone else to take notice. As performed, this is obviously one mad hatter, so much so that it deflates whatever dark kinship is meant to exist between Serrault…
Lembro de um crítico na revista Set dizendo que os livros de Simenon são curtos e o filme de Chabrol é lento e arrastado, e que talvez fosse melhor ler o livro. Isso numa revista de cinema. Baita injustiça com o filme e tremendo desserviço ao espectador. Não ver o filme significa perder todo o costumeiro trabalho que Chabrol tem com a caracterização da vida na província, o alfaiate, o chapeleiro, os jogos e as feiras. E o modo invulgar como mostra os crimes, um criminoso e suas testemunhas.
For me this is one of Chabrol's best films so it's sad that it only has nine reviews on here (including two by the same person). I guess that makes it ripe for discovery. Check it out.
Morbidly comedic.
Michel Serrault is a top notch cuckoo. Monsieur Labbé, his unhinged yet unassuming hatter's creepy pseudo friendship with Charles Aznavour's poor horrified next door neighbour, the tailor Kachoudas, doubles as both his anchor to reality and the last straw that'll tear him from it. A breather and a heart stopper, Itself a contradiction much like the two men.
Labbé babbles on in his letters to the "stupid fools" who are after him, claiming, swearing even, that his motives for killing aren't your typical depraved serial killer's motives, oh no, he is perfectly sane. However, the saying of how no truly insane person will proclaim insanity, well, one can only assume that...
vice versa?
On their daily card game…
Good old Leonard Maltin dismissed “The Hatter’s Ghost” as a “missed opportunity”, but I think this ranks among Chabrol’s strongest efforts from the Eighties.
It is structurally odd and off balance with the central focus shifting from the observer to the observed, but that also effectively puts the audience off its footing.
Michel Serrault is certainly over-the-top, absurdly creepy without ever crossing over the line to comic. Chabrol never gives you any red meat gruesomeness. He just slowly seeps in under your skin.
Hitchcock come punto di partenza. Già solo nell'incipit, Chabrol dichiara "The Hatter's Ghost" come erede effettivo di "Frenzy", realizzando un giallo che procede a colpi di anti-giallo, svelando fin da subito le sue carte e lasciando la trama sullo sfondo. Come nella maggior parte dei casi dei film del francese, ancora una volta è interessante come il regista sfrutti il contesto borghese per deriderlo e criticarlo, etichettarlo come non inclusivo e deformarlo, tramite una parodia grottesca dove l'orrore deriva proprio dalla normalità e dalla vita abulica della provincia.
Sembra quasi prevedere le traiettorie che seguirà Leconte con il suo "Monsieur Hire", declinandole però in modo del tutto esilarante, con il meccanismo padrone-servo che si instaura tramite splendidi giochi di luci…
What a splendid little film although I had read the Georges Simenon book but not having watched this it seems was never seen in UK. It is a rather lovely little story with lots of going on underneath not to mention the strangling of a rather lot of women we do not see and about a ‘ghost’ that is rather strange and never mind that the hatter is followed by the tailor and he seems to have fun until one day he can’t. Michel Serrault the great actor and has so many different films like with The Inquisitor (1981) with Lino Ventura, La Cage Aux Folles (1978) and even Les Diaboliques (1955). The very good Charles Aznavour is under played as the Armenian tailor with little money but looks as if he knows what is going on as we are also eventually. It is such a lovely and amusing although nasty but similarly and clever Chabrol film.