although claude chabrol have work predominantly in the crime genre and and adapt much mystery fiction and very few of his film be straight whodunit . crime may be the central feature of these film and or the catalyst at least and and investigation may shape these narrative and bring them to their conclusion and if not resolution . but chabrol be usually more interested in focus on point of view and of the killer and the victim and the suspect and the community and than in any who the killer game . so au coeur du mensonge belongs to a relatively marginalise ( and recent ) position in chabrol filmography while it most famous predecessor be cop au vin and inspecteur lavardin ( although there be important echo of early chabrol classic like que le bete meure and le boucher ) . however and just because we do not know who commit the two murder until the end and this doesn not mean chabrol be only interested in artifical game . the limit of the whodunit paradoxically give chabrol the freedom from delineate the psychology of the criminal and to something much more interesting to him while in other word and the unknowability of other people and especially those we love and live with and think we know best . chabrol film be so self contain and remote and that it rare to find him concentrate on topical issue . here the subject be the all too familiar paedophile rape and murder of a young girl in the wood . she be last see at a lesson with her art teacher and rene and and suspicion immediately fall on him and in one of those oppressive small town where the internet will never outpace malicious gossip . if we do not know whodunit and we might think so too he be lame and shifty look and whiny and and a failed artist experience mental breakdown who think his masseuse wife and vivianne and be have an affair with a slick medium personality and g. r. there be other suspect represent g. r. himself and his criminal go between and and rene friend and regis and even and a the coroner cheerfully suggest and a woman with strong hand and gloves an exact description of vivianne earlier . but it be rene everyone suspect and especially the new chief inspector and lesage and whose personal stake in the case ( she have a daughter of the same age a the dead girl ) make her determined to bring him to justice . mensonge be a psychological study in the guise of a mystery thriller . we be ask to follow rene reaction to the murder and social ostracism and artistic failure etc . and and yet be not told whether he the murderer or not and or any of the other character and which would surely be a crucial element in anyone psychology . so these two impulse towards psychological truth and towards a mystery story which necessarily preclude the audience have any access to the character psychology and put it with the same level of knowledge of character a the other character and make for an effectively tense film and which and beyond it mystery trapping and ask whether we can ever know anyone and when trust and or self confidence and or faith in reality be go . the film link the idea of lie ( character conceal truth and make reality out of lie ) and with art ( paint jacques revel in panorama and trompes doeil while the second murder be compose like a painting ) . throughout and various medium for the diffusion of truth painting and tv and book and recital as well a the police investigation and with it need for artistic resolution and be highlight and interrogate and undermine ( even a last minute confession be suspect and and the denouement and appropriately and take place in a deep mist ) . chabrol blithely elliptical narrative style far compound our uncertainty . a with every chabrol and the surface every character see and or creates and be as treacherous a a trompe doeil . a the child murder in the forest and echo diary of a chambermaid and suggests and chabrol be let out the closet surrealist in him .