Michel Deville is a French filmmaker known for his aesthetic refinement and "Péril en la Demeure" bears its author's trademark. It's filmed with elegance and everything from the scenery to the acting, the camera angles to the music without mentioning witty dialogs breathes the refined. One can't forget the neat link shots, the fluid editing that add to the pernicious charm this shady thriller exudes from its three exploited mainsprings: perversion, manipulation and voyeurism. Nearly everyone in this film is a peeping tom like the offbeat female neighborhood (Anémone) who films the lovemaking between the guitarist teacher David (Christophe Malavoy) and Julia (Nicole Garcia) or Julia's husband Graham (Michel Piccoli) who watched these lovemaking sessions on the videotape. As for the manipulation, Julia leads David up the garden path by making him believe that he killed her husband while seasoned killer Daniel (Richard Bohringer) tries to make him understand that he's got a mission to fulfill.
Deville diverts the codes, the ingredients of the genre to his own advantage to create a stylish, idiosyncratic thriller and a mirror film directed to the viewer about his peeping tom side. It's easy to let oneself immerse in this universe and to forget the irregularities or glitches that undermine a little the storytelling even if Deville has recourse to zones of shadow and clues likely to explain the characters' motivations. If the filmmaker bore this in mind, he can be forgiven for his possible mistakes.
Deville diverts the codes, the ingredients of the genre to his own advantage to create a stylish, idiosyncratic thriller and a mirror film directed to the viewer about his peeping tom side. It's easy to let oneself immerse in this universe and to forget the irregularities or glitches that undermine a little the storytelling even if Deville has recourse to zones of shadow and clues likely to explain the characters' motivations. If the filmmaker bore this in mind, he can be forgiven for his possible mistakes.