Inspecteur Lavardin is a 1986 French crime film directed by Claude Chabrol, starring Jean Poiret, Jean-Claude Brialy and Bernadette Lafont. It is a sequel to Cop Au Vin (French: Poulet au vinaigre, 1985).
Raoul Mons, a conservative Catholic writer, is found dead on a beach in Brittany. Inspecteur Lavardin (Poiret) is in charge of solving the case. He soon realizes that the victim's widow, Hélène (Lafont), is his ex-lover. She lives with her brother Claude Alvarez, an eccentric bisexual, and her daughter Véronique.
Inspecteur Lavardin provides examples of:
- Attempted Rape: Raoul Mons tried to rape Véronique, but she defended herself and stabbed him in the belly.
- Big Secret: Claude and Véronique do not tell Lavardin that Pierre and Jeanne are alive and that Véronique meets Pierre once a year.
- Blackmail:
- Raoul Mons asks Véronique to sleep with him in exchange for keeping quiet about the fact that her father Pierre Manguin is alive.
- Francis demands money from Claude in exchange for keeping quiet about the fact that he saw Claude dumping Raoul's body on the beach.
- Blackmail Backfire: Lavardin tells Francis that, if Claude is arrested for Raoul's murder, Francis will be arrested for drug trafficking and Blackmail. Eventually Subverted, because Lavardin proposes a deal instead.
- Caught on Tape: Lavardin discovers that Raoul's murder was filmed by a camera hidden in the ceiling of the room and he finds the video tape that reveals who committed it and how it happened.
- Cool Car: Claude owns a Jaguar Mark 2. It is mentioned several times that it is a beautiful car.
- Cowboy Cop: Lavardin extorts a false testimony from a witness to frame Max for the murder of Raoul, even if he knows Max did not commit it.
- Depraved Bisexual: Claude was married with a woman, but confesses that now he is more attracted to men. When his brother-in-law is murdered, he shows no sadness or empathy. He is the victim of Blackmail, so he seems to be the prime suspect of the murder case. Subverted because he was actually involved in the murder, but just helped Véronique (who murdered Raoul in self-defense) to get rid of the body. He even proposes to take the blame for the murder when Lavardin discovers the truth.
- Dirty Old Man: Raoul Mons was an older man who preyed on teenage girls in a night club and rented a flat where he invited them and forced them to have sex with him. He even tried to rape his own stepdaughter Véronique.
- Faking the Dead: Pierre Manguin and his lover pretended to be dead in a boat accident, so that they could escape their creditors and respective marriage and live together abroad.
- Femme Fatale: Lavardin realizes that the widow of Raoul, the murder victim, is Hélène, an attractive woman who was his lover years ago. Moreover, Lavardin soon hears that Raoul was her second husband, her first husband having disappeared in strange circumstances too. Subverted because Hélène is the only member of the family who is not aware of the Big Secret and she is not involved in the disappearance of her first husband and the murder of the second one.
- Framing the Guilty Party: Lavardin urges Francis to give false testimony against Max, a drug trafficker and procurer, so that Francis is arrested for the murder of Raoul, in which he is not involved.
- Heroic Sacrifice: When Lavardin discovers the truth about the murder, Claude proposes to take the blame for the murder and to kill himself. Lavardin has another plan.
- Killing in Self-Defense: It turns out Véronique stabbed Raoul Mons when he was trying to rape her.
- Love Dodecahedron: Years ago, Lavardin was in love with Hélène who dumped him. Hélène married Pierre and Claude married Jeanne. Jeanne and Pierre fell in love and eloped together in Scotland. Hélène then married Raoul. Raoul has sex with many teenage girls, was attracted to Véronique and tried to rape her.
- Meal Ticket: Hélène married Raoul because he was rich and had lent money previously to buy the house where she lived with her daughter and brother.
- Naughty by Night: Raoul Mons was a conservative Catholic writer, but he preyed on teenage girls in a night club and rented a flat where he invited them and forced them to have sex with him. He even tried to rape his own stepdaughter Véronique.
- Necro Cam: Lavardin finds a video tape on which Raoul's murder was recorded. While he is watching it, there is a Flashback that shows how it happened (the flashback is not the video that Lavardin is watching: it is filmed from a different angle).
- Never Found the Body: Pierre Manguin and Jeanne died in a boat accident, but their bodies were not found. It turns out that they are alive and live together in Scotland.
- Plot-Triggering Death: The murder of Raoul Mons triggers the plot.
- Posthumous Character: Raoul Mons is found dead in the beginning of the film, which is about the investigation of his death. He appears in a Flashback.
- Protagonist Title: Unlike the first instalment of the Lavardin series (Cop Au Vin, French: Poulet au vinaigre), this film is titled after the protagonist.
- Screw the Rules, I Have Connections!: Max is involved in drug trafficking and prostitution of underage women, but is not bothered by the police because he has friends in politics.
- Sdrawkcab Alias: The name Pierre Manguin uses to live secretly in Scotland is Guinman, i.e. his real name with the syllables in reverse order.
- Seemingly-Wholesome '50s Girl: During the day, Véronique is a good girl who works hard at school and wears modest clothes. At night, she puts makeup on and goes secretly to a nightclub to date boys.
- Sexless Marriage: Hélène never had sex with her second husband Raoul.
- Shout-Out: Lavardin calls the policeman who assists him Watson.
- Stylistic Suck: The blasphemous theatre play is quite strange. For example, it features a frogman perched in a fake tree.
- Taking the Heat: When Lavardin discovers the truth about the murder, Claude proposes to take the blame for the murder, to protect his niece Véronique.
