“Deliciously dark, highly recommended! Chabrol has found his most chillingly persuasive psycho-siren since Isabelle Huppert…” – The London Times

“Very spooky...slowly horrific...masterfully established tension.” – The Hollywood Reporter

“When the master of French thrillers Claude Chabrol meets the mistress of English suspense fiction Ruth Rendell, the result is a potent if very classic blend. …satisfying … gradually raises the tension until film's final revelation.” – Variety

It’s love at first sight when bridesmaid Senta falls into the life handsome young Philippe at the wedding of his younger sister. Though their passion for each other is as obvious as it is unquestionable, Philippe soon discovers that Senta’s life is shrouded in mystery and her stories surrounding her past anything but believable. When one day she asks Philippe for a terrible proof of his love, Philippe must come to terms with who his lover might really be. But is this just another of Senta’s fantastic tales? And how

CLAUDE CHABROL
Director

For a director whose 1958 debut, LE BEAU SERGE, is universally recognized as launching the French New Wave a year before Truffaut’s The 400 Blows took Cannes by storm, Claude Chabrol is an exquisitely understated filmmaker. Whether exploring a convoluted ménage à trios in LES BICHES (1968) or having a vengeful postmistress and an illiterate servant blow away a bourgeois family in A JUDGMENT IN STONE (1995), he never takes the audience for granted. Instead, he concentrates on perfectly pitched plots and an unparalleled sense of human psychology to rivet spectators to their seats, refusing to let go until he has inexorably squeezed the last drop of blood or passion from the on-screen situations he consummately choreographs. Chabrol’s mastery of the thriller genre, as well as his rotund physique, has led to inevitable comparisons with Alfred Hitchcock. It is a comparison that the director insists, “is neither entirely fair, nor entirely false”. But unlike Hitchcock, and very much like the fine wines he tastes with undiluted pleasure, Chabrol improves with age. After his critically and commercially acclaimed early years, and his wilderness decade in the 1980s, Chabrol burst back onto the scene with a string of hits in the last ten years - MADAME BOVARY, BETTY, HELL, A JUDGMENT IN STONE, NIGHTCAP - that brought awards at festivals and packed houses in theatres. The common thread of those pictures was a number of strong, alluring roles for some of France’s best actresses, Emmanuelle Béart, Sandrine Bonnaire and Isabelle Huppert. Now with THE BRIDESMAID, adapted from Ruth Rendell’s novel, the director has brought together two brilliant young actors, Benoît Magimel and Laura Smet, to tell a tangled, edgy tale of twisted passion reminiscent of his most accomplished films noirs.

RUTH RENDELL
Novelist

Crime novelist Ruth Rendell was born in London and educated at Loughton County High School, Essex. She is Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and has received many awards for her work, including the Crime Writers' Association Cartier Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award), and the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.

She is the author of a series of over 17 novels featuring Detective Chief Inspector Wexford, set in Kingsmarkham, a fictional English town. The first of these, FROM DOON WITH DEATH, is also her first novel and was published in 1964. Books in the series include KISSING THE GUNNER'S DAUGHTER (1992), SIMISOLA (1994), ROAD RAGE (1997), and most recently, END IN TEARS (2005). She also writes novels under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. These books include A DARK-ADAPTED EYE (1986), A FATAL INVERSION (1987), winner of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Gold Dagger for Fiction, GALLOWGLASS (1990), KING SOLOMON'S CARPET (1991), ASTA'S BOOK (1993) and THE BRIMSTONE WEDDING (1995).

Many of Ruth Rendell's stories have been adapted into feature films, notably Claude Chabrol's LA CÉRÉMONIE (1995), Pedro Almodovar's LIVE FLESH (1997) and Claude Miller's ALIAS BETTY (2001).