The Cry of the Owl

Le cri du hibou

When the object of a man’s voyeuristic obsession looks back, the boundaries between victim and perpetrator begin to blur, in Chabrol’s most Hitchcockian thriller.

  • Director

    Claude Chabrol

  • With

    Christophe Malavoy, Mathilda May, Virginie Thévenet

  • France-Italy 1987. 102min

  • 35mm

  • Certificate

    15

  • English subtitles

This thrilling noir, an adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s novel, sees the boundaries between victim and perpetrator blur when the object of a man’s voyeuristic gaze looks back. An homage to Rear Window, The Cry of the Owl finds Chabrol at his most Hitchcockian, as surveillance tips into paranoia, and with crosses and double-crosses piling up.

Contains scenes of graphic violence or injury and domestic violence or abuse.

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