Dr Petiot

Christian de Chalonge's film is based on the true story of Marcel Petiot, a mad doctor who was guillotined in 1946 after being convicted of 27 murders (he confessed to 63 but who's going to believe a madman), most of whom were Jewish patients whom he lured to their deaths by pretending to smuggle them out of Nazi-occupied France. Somewhat oddly de Chalonge appropriates the style of silent horror film notably that of F.W. Murnau who receives an explicit homage in the opening sequence as well as in the contrived performance of Michel Serrault, his eyes ringed with black make-up.

All this is reminiscent of the black comedy of Marc Caro and Jean-Pierre Jeunet's 1991 baroque masterwork, Delicatessen. De Chalogne comes up with some striking images, given an Expressionist feel by cinematographer Patrick Blossier whilst the music by Michel Portal and the sound design all add to the virtues of the film but the overall effect is rather unsatisfying in the context of what otherwise is a conventionally realist film, the absence of any insight into Petiot's motive's leaving him a two-dimensional caricature .

FYI: The Petiot story had previously been loosely told in the British film The Beast of Marseille (1957).

 

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