R.I.P. Claude Chabrol 1930-2010

The extremely prolific director made a film almost every 2-3 years, most in the suspense-thriller genre in the vein of Hitchcock. He got his start as a critic for “Cahiers du cinéma,” along with Francois Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard, and the late Eric Rohmer who passed away in spring. Often cited as igniting the French New Wave himself, Chabrol used his first wife’s inheritance to fund his debut feature “Le Beau Serge” in 1957. Commercially and critically lauded, it proved to the masses that the (at the time) tight French film industry could be infiltrated by an outsider. The man continued to work consistently and rarely turned down an offer to direct.

Much like Godard and muse Anna Karina, Chabrol had a similar relationship with Stéphane Audran, the star of his two early classics, “Le Boucher” (“The Butcher”), “La Femme Infidèle” (aka “The Unfaithful Wife,” later remade as “Unfaithful” with Diane Lane in 2002), “Les Biches”(“Bad Girls”) and over 25 other films. The two enjoyed a healthy marriage and working relationship until they dissolved their bond in 1980. Not one to be hindered, he adopted the always impressive Isabelle Huppert as his next vessel, and she would go on to be the central character in many of his projects until he passed away (1995’s “La Cérémonie” is particularly well-regarded).

The last Isabelle Huppert/Claude Chabrol character study wallop was 2006’s well-received “L’Ivresse de Pouvoir” (“A Comedy of Power“), which scored a 81% on RT and garnered special recognition for Huppert’s performance as a tough investigative magistrate. The devilishly good “La Fille Coupée en Deux” (“A Girl Cut In Two,” which starred the lovely Ludivine Sagnier) ended up on our Best Of 2008 list and holds a 73% on RT. It followed a TV weather girl and the two men that try to court her; we described the black comedy as “unforgettable.” The upcoming IFC-distributed “Bellamy” hits the States on October 1st and stars the trash-talking French icon Gérard Depardieu as the titular character who ends up in an investigation concerning his family while on holiday.

While not as widely known as his peers, Chabrol made an unquestionably large impact on cinema and we suppose now is as good a time as any to start digging into his back catalog. Unfairly labeled as the most “commercial” of the French New Wave, the director’s Hitchcockian thrillers are fascinating in their own right and should not be so quickly written off. We implore you to check out “Le Boucher,” “Les Biches,” “La Femme Infidèle,” “Que La Bête Meure” (“This Man Must Die”/”The Beast Must Die”) and encourage you to purchase two box sets if you want to know more. The early work, “Claude Chabrol Collection” focusing on his 1960s films, and the “Claude Chabrol’s Tales of Deceit” box which sticks closer to his ’80s and ’90s work.