Claude Chabrol confects another bitter Hitchcockian bonbon with this suspenser, in which Isabelle Huppert brings a striking lack of affect to Muller-chocolate-fortune heiress Mika, who’s marrying the renowned pianist André Polonski (Jacques Dutronc) for the second time. Their first marriage ended 18 years ago when André strayed off and wed Lisbeth, who later died in a mysterious accident. As if that weren’t complicated enough, shortly after the remarriage, the lovely piano student Jeanne (Anna Mouglalis) drops by the chalet to suggest that she might be André’s daughter, having been switched at birth with his son Guillaume (Rodolphe Pauly).

So why isn’t this enough to explain the business with the hot chocolate, a plot device straight out of The Count of Monte Cristo? Although psychology loses out to narrative convolutions, Chabrol’s icy compositions and cutting chill the blood, right down to the long, final close-up of Huppert’s tear-streaked face. In French with English subtitles. (99 minutes)