{ "id": "epwr2jryzq", "slug": "the-unfaithful-wife", "title": "The Unfaithful Wife", "updated": "2026-11-01", "topic_path": [ { "id": "culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture" }, { "id": "culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/topics/culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ], "geo": [ { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000: 1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "path": [ { "id": "geo.weu", "label": "Western Europe", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946", "label": "Western Europe · 1946 to 2000", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture", "label": "Arts and culture", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance", "label": "Screen and stage", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen", "label": "Film and television", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films", "label": "Films and standalone screen works", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works", "label": "Individual films by title and year", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery", "label": "Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works)", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery" }, { "id": "geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "label": "1960s films", "api_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/api/v1/geo/geo.weu.t1946.culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films" } ] } ], "excerpt": "La Femme infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife) is Claude Chabrol's 1969 French thriller starring Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, and Maurice Ronet, in which a husband murders his wife's lover; remade as Unfaithful (2002).", "snippet": "La Femme infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife) is Claude Chabrol's 1969 French thriller starring Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, and Maurice Ronet, in which a husband murders his wife's lover; remade as Unfaithful (2002).", "node": "culture.performance.screen.films.films.individual-works.crime-thriller-mystery.1960s-films", "markdown": "# The Unfaithful Wife\n\n**The Unfaithful Wife** (French: *La Femme infidèle*) is a French psychological thriller directed by Claude Chabrol and released in 1968, in which an insurance broker who discovers his wife's affair murders her lover and disposes of the body while the police investigate the disappearance[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele) • [2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_unfaithful_wife). It stars Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, and Maurice Ronet, and it is regarded as the first of Chabrol's run of bourgeois psychological thrillers[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele) • [3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/claude-chabrol-celebration).\n\n| Key fact | Detail |\n|---|---|\n| Director / writers | Claude Chabrol (director and screenplay), with a story credit also to Sauro Scavolini[4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064323/) |\n| Cast | Stéphane Audran as Hélène Desvallées, Michel Bouquet as Charles Desvallées, Maurice Ronet as Victor Pégala[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele) |\n| Production | France and Italy; Les Films La Boétie and Cinégay; producers André Génovès and Georges Casati[5](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/34585) • [6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/la-femme-infidele) |\n| French release | 19 December 1968 per the CNC visa record; Encyclopedia.com lists a January 1969 Paris release[5](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/34585) • [6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/la-femme-infidele) |\n| Running time | 98 minutes (BFI); Encyclopedia.com lists 105 minutes for the French version and 98 minutes for the English version[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele) • [6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/la-femme-infidele) |\n| Key crew | Photography Jean Rabier, editing Jacques Gaillard, music Pierre Jansen[6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/la-femme-infidele) |\n| Remakes | Adrian Lyne's *Unfaithful* (2002) with Richard Gere and Diane Lane; *Minotaur* by Andrey Zvyagintsev, which BFI reports won the Grand Prix at Cannes[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol) • [1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele) |\n\n## Spoilers\n\n### Plot\n\nCharles Desvallées (Michel Bouquet) is a 40-year-old insurance broker living a bourgeois existence with his wife Hélène (Stéphane Audran), who is 30, does not work, and seems bored in their villa, and their son[8](https://ifcinema.institutfrancais.com/fr/movie?id=def8d127-9cda-353c-0c52-5704b567f75f). Charles begins to suspect infidelity during Hélène's frequent trips to Paris, where she claims appointments with the beautician, shopping, or cinema visits; in fact she meets the divorced writer Victor Pégala (Maurice Ronet) at his bachelor flat[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol). A phone call to the beauty parlour, where she is not registered, confirms suspicions that have accumulated in his mind[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol).\n\nCharles hires a private detective, who identifies the lover[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_unfaithful_wife). Charles visits Victor, presents himself as fully aware of the situation all along, and asks only for a civilized chat; after their conversation he kills him and makes the body disappear[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol) • [9](https://www.festival-entrevues.com/storage/drupal/images/archives/catalogue_entrevues_2003.pdf). As the police investigate the disappearance, Hélène gradually understands that her husband is the killer and that he killed for love[9](https://www.festival-entrevues.com/storage/drupal/images/archives/catalogue_entrevues_2003.pdf). Her first conversations with two investigating officers, one smoothly groomed and the other openly malevolent, are played as set pieces of tension, since her own behavior appears guilty and her details were found in Victor's address book[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol). Without a word said, the marriage reconfigures itself into complicity and silent forgiveness; the Larousse film dictionary summarizes the outcome as a crime that ends by re-cementing the couple[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol) • [10](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/la_Femme_infid%C3%A8le/4314).\n\n## Production and style\n\nThe film was shot in 1968 in and around Paris in Eastmancolor, produced by Les Films La Boétie and Cinégay, with Jean Rabier as cinematographer, Jacques Gaillard as editor, Guy Littaye as art director, and a score by Pierre Jansen[6](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/la-femme-infidele). Chabrol was a leading member of the [French New Wave](https://www.edgepedia.org/french-new-wave) and came to be regarded as the \"French Hitchcock\"[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele). Critics have noted Hitchcockian touches, including a nod to *Psycho* in the scene where Victor's body is eliminated in a pond, and a final combined backward track and forward zoom adapted from *[Vertigo](https://www.edgepedia.org/vertigo-film)*[11](https://dvdtoile.com/Film.php?full_cast=1&id=6734) • [12](https://www.timeout.com/movies/la-femme-infidele).\n\nPeter Bradshaw, film critic for *The Guardian*, reviewing the 2026 restoration, argues that the film resembles Buñuel more than Hitchcock: an absurdist joke at the expense of the French bourgeoisie, a \"ballet of repression and fear\" in which the opening depiction of domestic happiness is drenched with strangeness by the atonal score and by Bouquet's waxy, artificial smile[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol). The French critics' journal *Cahiers du cinéma*, in a February 1969 review by editor Jean-Louis Comolli, praised the treatment of a story without intrinsic interest and observed that Chabrol had shifted the traditional bourgeois adultery triangle so that its summit, the hero, is the husband[9](https://www.festival-entrevues.com/storage/drupal/images/archives/catalogue_entrevues_2003.pdf).\n\n**Place in Chabrol's career.** BFI curator Catherine Wheatley calls the film the first of Chabrol's great run of bourgeois psychological thrillers, a cycle that continued with *[Que la bête meure](https://www.edgepedia.org/que-la-bete-meure)* (1969), *Le Boucher* (1970), *La Rupture* (1970), *Juste avant la nuit* (1971), and *Les Noces rouges* (1973)[3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/claude-chabrol-celebration) • [13](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/10/redecouvrir-le-cinema-de-claude-chabrol-observateur-de-la-mediocrite-humaine_6620464_3246.html). The Australian Centre for the Moving Image describes it as the first of a trilogy on adultery known as the \"Helene\" series, all starring Chabrol's then wife Stéphane Audran and including *La Rupture*[14](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/93508--the-unfaithful-wife-la-femme-infidele-widescreen/).\n\n## Reception and remakes\n\nOn Rotten Tomatoes the film holds an 88% Tomatometer from 8 critics and an 81% Popcornmeter score from more than 1,000 audience ratings; on IMDb it has a 7.3/10 rating from about 5,400 users[2](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_unfaithful_wife) • [4](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064323/). AlloCiné's spectator average is 3.9 out of 5 from 651 ratings[15](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-4323/critiques/spectateurs/). *Le Monde*'s 1969 review called it one of Chabrol's best films despite, or because of, its subject[16](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1969/01/28/la-femme-infidele_2422101_1819218.html).\n\nThe story has been remade more than once. [Adrian Lyne](https://www.edgepedia.org/adrian-lyne)'s 2002 American film *Unfaithful*, starring [Richard Gere](https://www.edgepedia.org/richard-gere) and [Diane Lane](https://www.edgepedia.org/diane-lane), is a remake of the thriller[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol). Russian director Andrey Zvyagintsev's *Minotaur* is a partial remake or theme variation, which BFI reports won the Grand Prix at Cannes[7](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol) • [1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele).\n\n**Restoration and re-release.** BFI Distribution re-released a new restoration in UK and Irish cinemas from 11 September, with the film on BFI Player from 2 October, as part of the BFI Southbank season \"Claude Chabrol – Elements of Crime\", which ran from 1 September to 6 October[1](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele) • [3](https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/claude-chabrol-celebration). The restored version was also presented in France by Tamasa Distribution, which holds distribution rights from 2024, with support from the CNC[5](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/34585) • [17](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/la-femme-infidele).\n\n## References\n\n1. [La Femme infidèle, BFI film release page](https://www.bfi.org.uk/bfi-film-releases/la-femme-infidele)\n2. [The Unfaithful Wife, Rotten Tomatoes](https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_unfaithful_wife)\n3. [Claude Chabrol celebrated with BFI Southbank season, re-release of La Femme infidèle, BFI](https://www.bfi.org.uk/news/claude-chabrol-celebration)\n4. [The Unfaithful Wife (1969), IMDb](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0064323/)\n5. [LA FEMME INFIDELE, visa no. 34585, CNC Visas et Classification](https://www.cnc.fr/professionnels/visas-et-classification/34585)\n6. [La Femme Infidèle, Encyclopedia.com](https://www.encyclopedia.com/movies/dictionaries-thesauruses-pictures-and-press-releases/la-femme-infidele)\n7. [Peter Bradshaw, La Femme Infidèle review, The Guardian, 10 September 2026](https://www.theguardian.com/film/2026/sep/10/la-femme-infidele-review-claude-chabrol)\n8. [La Femme infidèle, IFcinéma, Institut français](https://ifcinema.institutfrancais.com/fr/movie?id=def8d127-9cda-353c-0c52-5704b567f75f)\n9. [La Femme infidèle entry with Jean-Louis Comolli's Cahiers du cinéma review (February 1969), Festival du cinéma de la ville de Québec (Entrevues) catalogue](https://www.festival-entrevues.com/storage/drupal/images/archives/catalogue_entrevues_2003.pdf)\n10. [la Femme infidèle, Larousse, Dictionnaire mondial des films](https://www.larousse.fr/encyclopedie/film/la_Femme_infid%C3%A8le/4314)\n11. [La Femme infidèle, DvdToile](https://dvdtoile.com/Film.php?full_cast=1&id=6734)\n12. [La Femme Infidèle review, Time Out](https://www.timeout.com/movies/la-femme-infidele)\n13. [Redécouvrir le cinéma de Claude Chabrol, Le Monde, 10 July 2025](https://www.lemonde.fr/culture/article/2025/07/10/redecouvrir-le-cinema-de-claude-chabrol-observateur-de-la-mediocrite-humaine_6620464_3246.html)\n14. [The Unfaithful wife = La Femme infidele [Widescreen], ACMI collection](https://www.acmi.net.au/works/93508--the-unfaithful-wife-la-femme-infidele-widescreen/)\n15. [La Femme infidèle, critiques spectateurs, AlloCiné](https://www.allocine.fr/film/fichefilm-4323/critiques/spectateurs/)\n16. [« La Femme infidèle », Le Monde, 28 January 1969](https://www.lemonde.fr/archives/article/1969/01/28/la-femme-infidele_2422101_1819218.html)\n17. [La Femme infidèle, ADRC](https://adrc-asso.org/patrimoine/diffusion/films-et-cycles/la-femme-infidele)\n\n---\n*Topic: Encyclopedia › Arts and culture › Screen and stage › Film and television › Films and standalone screen works › Individual films by title and year › Crime, thriller, and mystery films (individual works) › 1960s films*\n\n*Initially written Oct 3, 2026 · Reviewed: Oct 25, 2026 · Edited: Oct 15, 2026; Oct 25, 2026; Nov 1, 2026 · Last review: Oct 25, 2026*\n\n*Copyright 2026 EdgeChat AI, a subsidiary of Biostate AI.*\n\nLicense: Edgepedia Community License 1.0, https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license\n", "same_as": [], "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-unfaithful-wife", "markdown_url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/the-unfaithful-wife.md", "license": { "name": "Edgepedia Community License 1.0", "url": "https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license", "summary": "Free with credit, commercial use included. AI training is open to everyone. For other uses, organizations over USD 100M in revenue or 100M monthly users license separately.", "spdx": "LicenseRef-Edgepedia-Community-1.0" }, "credit": "\"The Unfaithful Wife\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-unfaithful-wife. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "credit_md": "\"[The Unfaithful Wife](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-unfaithful-wife)\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), [https://www.edgepedia.org/the-unfaithful-wife](https://www.edgepedia.org/the-unfaithful-wife). [Edgepedia Community License 1.0](https://www.edgepedia.org/edgepedia/license).", "credit_html": "\"The Unfaithful Wife\", Edgepedia (EdgeChat), https://www.edgepedia.org/the-unfaithful-wife. Edgepedia Community License 1.0.", "speakable": "La Femme infidèle is Claude Chabrol's 1969 French thriller starring Stéphane Audran, Michel Bouquet, and Maurice Ronet, in which a husband murders his wife's lover; remade as Unfaithful." }