There was an outcry when "le trio infernal" was released in 1974;the subject was nefarious.Sometimes recalling Leonard Kastle's incomparable "the honeymoon killers"(1969),it depicted the crimes of a Lawyer(Piccoli),his lover (Schneider),and the lover's young sister. Most horrible scene:to get rid of one of their victims' dead body,they dissolve it in sulphuric acid!The director insists on "preparations".We attend the whole thing,the director goes as far as showing the "heroes",emptying the bath tub with pails ,a gas mask on the face.
Enough was enough for the 1974 audience.The worst was Romy Schneider's presence.For a lot of people,she remained the lovely empress Sissi,all smile.She had actually showed this character's darker side in Visconti's "Ludwig II"(1973).The audience could accept her politically correct Sautet efforts-"les choses de la vie"1969,"César et Rosalie",1972)or the academic Granier-Deferre's "le train" (1972),but her portrayal of an abject woman playing with trash was too much for them.
A gruesome farce,it's also a caricature of a selfish society,with its religion the money Goddess.Retro style adds to the harm(sorry,charm)of this bourgeois wholesale massacre .
