Customer Rating: 
Summary: A masterful thriller
Comment: The story features a man (Robert) in the throes of a separation (developing to divorce) from his wife who starts watching a young girl (Juliet) at night. Juliet is engaged to her boyfriend Patrick and they are soon to marry. One day Robert approaches Juliet in her back garden and tells her what he has been doing and, surprisingly enough, she doesn't mind. This is the only weak point in the story - I would have expected her to react rather differently, but hey, you never quite know how people are going to behave I suppose. The reasoning here, perhaps, is that Robert's prowling has no sexual overtones. This is made clear once he has started speaking with Juliet - his problem is essentially that he feels lonely and somewhat ostracised from "normal" life. From hereon Juliet takes a fancy to Robert and ditches Patrick; Patrick tries to get Robert out of the picture and soon there is police involvement and murder on the cards.The things that really struck me about the film are the way it was made and the way that it all works. The approach is very minimalist, although some of the visuals are quite haunting. Chabrol keeps everything very measured (visually and script/performance wise), you could be unkind and interpret this as slow, but think "real world" and you may be part of the way there - let's face it, life is not full of jump cuts and explosions! He allows each scene to develop on the strength of its characters with subtle camera movements and focusing.
There are one or two set pieces in the film which really work, but like the rest of the film these are comparatively low key. The whole set of scenes around the attempted shooting of Robert in his own home are beautifully handled. The actual shooting comes about whilst Robert is sitting in his lounge and it is in very essence very matter of fact. The incident comes about without warning and is shot in a completley "real life " manner - the actual incident is over in a matter of moments. There is no attempt to hype up the sequence and it is all so naturally staged. The camera as your eyes follows the events simply as if you were standing in the room (i.e. the camera captures the complete event but is so unobtrusive in its manner).
The film was actually made towards the end of the 1980's, but on watching it I had to look at the box to confirm this. It could so easily have been made in either of the previous decades. The film is masterful and assured in every way. It is certainly not uplifting - the characters that populate it are, ultimately all quite lonely and none of them have quite found their niche in life. Robert is an accomplished graphic designer and artist, but it think he merely gains comfort from these abilities rather than revelling in and cashing in on them. There is also a certain playfulness in the proceedings, largely due to the character of Robert's ex-wife, which develops quite nicely with the narrative. The ending itself is a fitting conclusion which is doubly satisfying in that it successfully brings proceedings to a clear end, but does also manage to leave the way open to other possibilities for the future.
Cry Of The Owl will leave you neither depressed or elated, but it left me feeling suitably content and looking forward to the next time that I come across a film directed by Claude Chabrol.
