Sunday, September 12, 2010

Claude Chabrol - R.I.P.

Renowned French filmmaker Claude Chabrol passed away today, at the age of 80. Beginning his career as a film critic alongside contemporaries Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer and François Truffaut with the influential French film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma, Chabrol helped to usher in the French New Wave with his self-financed debut feature Le beau Serge in 1959.

He followed this up with a series of arthouse films including Les Cousins (1959), Les Bonnes Femmes (1960) and Les Godelureaux (1961) before shifting to more commercial material in the mid-60s such as the spy thrillers Le Tigre aime la chair fraiche (1964) and Le tigre se parfume à la dynamite (1965).

Heavily influenced by acclaimed British director Alfred Hitchcock (he had co-authored the 1957 study Hitchcock alongside Eric Rohmer), Chabrol began to develop his signature "Chabrol-esque" style in a series of Hitchcock-inspired suspense thrillers and critically acclaimed dramas including Le Scandale (1967), Les Biches (1968), La Femme infidel (1969) and Le Boucher (1970).

The Chabrol style is something I admired deeply as I loved his films Betty (1992), the troubling L’Enfer (1994), The Flower of Evil (2003) and, most particularly, a sterling adaptation of one of my favorite Patricia Highsmith thrillers, Le cri du hibou/The Cry of the Owl (1987). The troubling undercurrent of emotional connections and disconnections made any Chabrol film a compelling if not always satisfying experience.

He directed some of the world’s finest actors and even filmed some of his work in English with such well-known American actors as Orson Welles, Anthony Perkins, Jodie Forster and Jennifer Beals. He was honored with a Life Achievement Award at the 2003 European Film Awards and continued to enjoy a prolific career spanning half a century, with his final film Bellamy released in 2009.

3 comments:

  1. Hello Doug,

    Vous auriez pu citer aussi le film: "la cérémonie" (1995) adapté du roman homonyme de Ruth Rendell.
    C'est son fils: Matthieu Chabrol qui composait la musique de ses films depuis quelques années.

    Alain

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  2. Duly noted, Alain. Thank you. "La cérémonie" is another Chabrol beauty and I was remiss to neglect acknowledging son Matthieu's magnificent musical contributions to his father's films.

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  3. Anonymous5:55 PM

    Can't blieve you've overlooked the excellent soundtracks and musical works by Pierre Jansen, who was to Chabrol what Hermann was to Hitch...

    https://youtu.be/3TG-mip5XRA

    Good blog Douglas.

    Sam

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