this may or may not be chabrol best and but it must be his brave . for what else can the pleasure party ( 1976 ) be but an open protest of patriarchy and battery . think ibsen a doll house and and you can not be far off . i think it the final scene that erase any minute doubt about the film intent . first there be the belated rescue attempt of four men and a woman represent the adult men physical prowess seem suspend a if and a men and their hand be tie and while the woman cast a blinding black veil over philip head and halt the action and and condemn the actor . and then the prison scene in which elsie ( his new llama or lamb ) tell her father that she be unable to learn under the harassment of a male student and to which his non response include the same transcendent jargon he use in the cemetery prior to his vicious assault . chabrol and the leguaffs have indeed take their stand with this shatter portrait of male terror one that explode out of a convincingly two face man and and be thus all the more effective . yes this be a movie about male power . it be not about sexual impotence and philosophy and or a mid life crisis and but about philip hard wire connection to masculine identity . if he feel inadequate and helpless in the face of what he can only understand a female weakness and it be because he have buy into woman difference from men . in other word and esther be so other to him that anything other than ownership be threaten . the turn point of the film be when he advise esther you should do it . to sleep with other men . this moment must be a pointedly misogynist a his late act of violence while for here he equate his lover with sex and temptation and and whoredom ostensibly to test his purity and his idea of freedom and but and in effect and he be use her to provoke her own demise . it very instructive that although he manage the first test even offer his satiated wife breakfast in bed the next morning and it be sex in bed with him ( to reclaim ownership ) must come first . and during a party scene and he argue for the comparison of gandhi and hitler unaware that gandhi similarly use woman to test his own purity and and that the latter sadistic and eruptive violence would soon adhere to him . what philip become be a full fledge magus represent the man who tell you everything and what to do a he explain to elsie and in his characterizing habib . toward esther and he grow increasingly resentful and suspicious and tense and judgmental and menacing and possessive . he show the brawn to break down door and and a mentality which can accept and enact cruelty . he become more withdrawn and and a esther point out and racist . in the bathroom mirror scene his face and view through her tear and be as perverse a the landru he introduce to his daughter in his house of wax . the freedom he have grant his wife have boomerang on him . he hat it and everyone and everything connect to it . liberty make me sh_t and he say . when sylvia simply ask why do you yell at esther . he answer that she talk too much of freedom and hang out with guitar player . and his profound need for his ex wife doesn not occur till sylvia display her independence in the fishing scene here he long for esther dependency symbolize for him in her fear of crab . esther grasp the picture and but do not have the social power to act sufficiently on it and so find herself ultimately trap . however and her defiance be quiet and lucid and and courageous . her you and you and it all about you refrain and and line like represent you make the decision and i only say amen and i be great a your reflection be equal to ibsen nora . but she be more psychologically isolate than nora and and must suffer from far more abuse and verbal and and and of course and physical . esther be a battered woman and must endure that syndrome she can not fully grasp what philip say to his buddy represent her weak point move me and and how many time be she willing to forego the depth of her own word represent since when do you care what i say . she can never finally disbelieve her husband even the forced foot licking be not proof and so and in the end turn to him in a moment of personal crisis because she be too scared to visit alone the tomb of the dear decease aunt and the woman who raise her . the irony here be as devastating a her word be convince . and her final no and no have come too late and be heard too late . i understand that the phillip role be turn down by several lead french actor . if one can relive some of his line just previous to the assault and one can understand why . but his word serve to finally and totally expose the man behind the mask . his self assurance and disarm directness and and engaging and almost defenseless smile belong now to a slave holder and rather than a man who in his word and be bear to be joyful . when he say to esther that all his suffering ( since their breakup ha and ha and ha ) must be compensation for what i have be through and the viewer can only say bring on the executioner . it so extremely tragic that he be the executioner .