Pauline Lafont in Cop Au Vin (1985)

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Long before the appearance of his Cop Au Vin (1985), revered and widely influential French director Claude Chabrol had established himself as a master of dark-soul cinema. Fans of Chabrol admire his deft control of pace, menace, and mystery and are entranced by his unflinching lighting schemes, which illuminate the murkiest nooks of the heart of man. After a quarter century of hard-bitten, pulse-quickening fare, Cop Au Vin appeared as a comparative foray into lighter celluloid mayhem. Do not be deceived by the idyllic rural setting or by the mild-mannered postman devoted to his crippled mother. A drifter detective is on the way, and his tactics will make Dirty Harry look like Mr. Clean.