THE CEREMONY

Accept no substitutes, the real Alfred Hitchcock is Claude Chabrol. Well, perhaps that's overstating things somewhat, but thorughout a prolific, wide-ranging, four-decade career, this French master has returned time and again to sinister material fittiing for the Master of Suspense himself, and it's hard not to imagine that somewhere Hitch is smiling on Chabrol's sly psychological thriller, freshly adapted from one of Ruth Rendell's best-known books. The Lelievres, a wealthy French family in need of a housekeeper, hire a quiet, dutiful young woman who seems perfect for the job, until she falls under the influence of the village postmistress, who harbors ill will towrd the Lelievres. Mutual suspicion arises and escalates towards violence when Monsieur Lelievre decides someone is tampering with his letters. Is the hand that pushes the broom the hand that rules the world, or is it the hand that handles the mail? Or both? Chabrol's dry, dark wit is stamped on this special delivery. In French with English subtitles. – Charles Cassady