DVD: The Essential Claude Chabrol Vol 1, For retail & rental (Artificial Eye)

This neat little package draws together three of Chabrol's more recent films, Inspector Lavardin (1986), Betty (1992) and Merci pour le Chocolat (2000).

All reveal the director's preoccupation with peeling back the veneer of respectability of the upper-middle classes in films full of Hitchcockian twists and suspense. By far the best of the bunch is Merci..., thanks in no small part to a quite magnificent performance by Isabelle Huppert as the heir to a chocolate fortune.