Claude Chabrol's Poulet au vinaigre | Cop au Vin (1985)

Chabrol's Poulet au vinaigre – meaning 'chicken with vinegar' but also punning on poulet meaning cop, and rather cleverly (for once) equally punningly translated as Cop au Vin – is a reference to Inspector Lavardin (Jean Poiret), who is good and bad cop in one person. Set in a small town (in reality Forges-les-Eaux, Seine-Maritime), Poulet au vinaigre displays a feast of characters with odd characteristics. The plot is far too complicated to go into, as Chabrol himself recognised, so I can only mention a few things.

Essentially we have Madame Cuno (Stéphane Audran), the slightly crazy dominating and wheelchair-bound mother of Louis (Lucas Belvaux), the young postman who lives with her and suffers her eccentricities. Three men – solicitor Hubert Lavoisier (Michel Bouquet), medical practitioner Dr Philippe Morasseau (Jean Topart) and butcher Gérard Filiol (Jean-Claude Bouillaud) – are after the Cuno house to develop on it, but not if the Cunos have anything to do with it.

And Louis certainly does have something to do with it, as he puts sugar in Filiol's petrol tank, leading to his death when he tries to overtake a lorry. It's about halfway through the film when Lavardin makes his appearance, and he'll use whatever means he chooses to get at his answers: he's not interested in getting search warrants and other permissions, and he beats Louis about the face and thrusts Lavoisier's head under water to extract the truth. But strangely, Lavardin nevertheless has his appeal.

There are many more events in the film, such as the doctor's wife Delphine (Josephine Chaplin) being found dead in a burnt-out car, a body in a statue in Morasseau's garden, and so on. Just a few of the lighter touches are the lustful behaviour of Henriette (Pauline Lafont) towards Louis, the penchant of Lavardin for fried eggs with paprika, Louis's mother's jealousy of her son and the desire of the barman who serves Lavardin for Morasseau's mistress. A highly enjoyable Chabrol.