MORE FRENCH BAD BEHAVIOR IN 'THE FLOWER OF EVIL'.

Byline: Glenn Whipp Film Critic

IN ``THE FLOWER of Evil,'' Claude Chabrol returns to his obsession with middle-class mores, intent on proving that one generation never learns from its predecessor's mistakes. Certainly, Chabrol knows something about repetition, as his latest movie (No. 50 for the French director) is a rather airless study of rituals that is more tedious than it is enlightening or original.

The movie begins well enough with Chabrol's camera silently moving through the many rooms of a family mansion, revealing servants making preparations for a celebration, showing a young woman weeping on the floor and, finally, the dead body of a middle-aged man. (The reason for the young woman's tears, perhaps?) Some 90 minutes later, Chabrol will return to the corpse. The problem, by that point, is that Chabrol's languid pacing may well have left you moribund, too.

There are three generations of family repeating the past here: The oldest, Aunt Line (the vibrant Suzanne Flon, easily the best reason to see the movie) presides over the Charpin-Vasseur residence outside Bordeaux. Also living there are Gerard (Bernard Le Coq) and Anne (Nathalie Baye) who married when their respective spouses were killed in a car crash. Gerard's son, Francois (Benoit Magimel) has just returned from the States, much to the joy of Michele (the impossibly beautiful Melanie Doutey), Anne's daughter. Michele and Gerard have the hots for each other, and they've decided to no longer let the fact that they're first cousins be an impediment to their happiness. (Those French!)

The movie's main intrigue doesn't come from all the incestuous ties but from a local election that Chabrol follows with far more detail than necessary. Anne is running for mayor, and somebody has been handing out leaflets smearing the family name. Could it be Gerard, who, even though he's sleeping with every other woman in town, doesn't approve of his wife's political aspirations? The kids and Auntie Line think yes.

And that's about it. There's a lot of talk about the family's checkered past, which would give the Kennedys a run for their money. In fact, there's a lot of talk about just about everything, but none of it adds up to much that is interesting. Given the denouement, Chabrol means for the movie to be an examination of the malaise that comes from an obsession with keeping up appearances. Chabrol seems to think it's peculiar to the bourgeoisie, a debatable point in a work that coolly eliminates any such debate with its own impassivity.

Glenn Whipp, [phone]

glenn.whipp(at)dailynews.com

THE FLOWER OF EVIL - Two stars

(Not rated: adult themes)

Starring: Suzanne Flon, Nathalie Baye, Bernard Le Coq.

Director: Claude Chabrol.

Running time: 1 hr. 41 min.

Playing: Laemmle's Town Center 5 in Encino, Laemmle's Playhouse 7 in Pasadena, Landmark Cecchi Gori Fine Arts Theater in Beverly Hills.

In a nutshell: Wilted.

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Nathalie Baye and Benoit Magimel are stepmother and stepson in ``The Flower of Evil,'' a look at French middle-class values under pressure.