Overview: In Bordeaux, a murder investigation tied to a queer club pulls a married police inspector into a dangerous affair with a young handsome musician who may also be a suspect. As the investigation deepens, his involvement with the suspect begins to strain his marriage and blur the boundaries between his professional and private life.

Directed by Yannick Bellon, The Cheat (La Triche) blends noir tension with a complex portrait of identity and obsession. Newly restored in HD for its first major U.S. release, the film remains a striking entry in queer French cinema.

Blu-ray Verdict: A superb, near perfect crime thriller about a forbidden love affair, the false moralism of an apparently open-minded society and a man torn apart between his stable family life and his male lover, all comes complete with a possible suspect on a murder case. Yannick Bellon’s film deeply explores the ambiguities of life, romance and sex in a reflective, open matter, at times humored but also very dark.

Police commissioner Michel Verta (Victor Lanoux) is called to investigate the mysterious murder of a gay emcee at the Bordeaux docks. At the club the old man used to work he meets Bernard (Xavier Deluc), a young musician very acquainted with the deceased, and soon after questioning a fascination takes hold of both.

Though Michel is a happily married man, he isn’t new to the game in meeting men for sexual relations, and we’re told of that right from the very first scene, Indeed, the story is very smart and keen in showing that he deeply cares for Bernard rather than using the young boy as a bait to catch a killer. This isn’t Friedkin’s classic Crusing’, but it easily could be.

Instead of deeply involving us with the investigation, the film focuses on how those two can keep their relationship on a low-profile in order to not attract attention to a prominent and respective figure as the inspector is. He is also a very careful man since his other affairs were always one-night stands that still nobody suspects.

Yet, he loves his wife and daughter, and his job, but he also knows that Bernard has that special quality one longs in finding on a person and he cannot imagine a life without him. But there’s a killer on the loose and the musician might know who he is, so there’s danger all around as they become more and more intimate.

The Cheat (La Triche) is a very gripping film, no question about that. Lanoux and Deluc are incredibly talented performers and their scenes together are easily the best moments in the film, both in dialogues and intimacy. It’s a very seductive and potent film about the problematic and differences between love and passion, real commitment or just mutual interests and the line between all - those elements could fool a smart man like Michel and confuse an impressive streetwise like Bernard.

And if there’s one great topic debated with a fine intensity here is the question of sexuality and how labels should never been applied to a person, as Michel’s family have trouble with a proper definition when the affair is revealed. And the big question thrown at us: to cheat on himself in order to live a reality one does not completely like, or to throw away everything, to have real love but also feel as an outcast?

But it doesn’t go without faults or things that needed a better presentation. I liked the fact that the crime and the investigation ended up being on a second level, as the problematic love affair is far more interesting to follow. But the problems arise, for me, as such: 1) it almost feels as there wasn’t a clear motivation for the murder; 2) showing the killer right from the get-go hurt the mystery of it all, as I believe audiences would love if Bernard could be the one; and 3) the total lack of audacity in showing the couple being really intimate.

They don’t kiss at all, and the two bedroom scenes shown gives us almost nothing. For a film that dares to walk on controversial themes (at the time), the director made it all too clean and cute, there was no risk. And it’s not a matter of being a 90’s product, as the previous year French cinema had the sexual audacity from L’homme blessé, a film that I didn’t like for countless problems - but I liked the scenes of sexual nature. Mrs. Bellon’s film gives us some moments and nude photos from a magazine, but we have to believe in the male couple and their talks, rather than the physical contact.

A true glorious film, exciting and thrilling, and very easy to recommend despite many downbeat elements (but there is one that can be seen coming a mile away, as true products of its period, of course). I just felt it was a little too rushed with its conclusion, but regardless, my goodness, The Cheat (La Triche) is a cracking film from start to (almost) finish. [R.A.]

Bonus Materials:
Between Identity and Emotion: Reflections on La Triche (47 minutes)
New Trailer
Other Trailers
English Subtitles
2.0 DTS-HD Master Audio
Region-Free

The Cheat (La Triche) | Official HD Restoration Trailer 1994 Trailer

Official Purchase Link

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