Les Cousins (1959)

 Claude Chabrol's "Les Cousins"


Although it was his second feature film, "Les Cousins" was Claude Chabrol's first feature that he attempted to make. Due to its excessive budget, he instead made the cheaper "Le Beau Serge" his first film and used the profits to make "Les Cousins" immediately afterward. The two projects also parallel each other in story, although the two actors - Gerard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy - switched archetypical roles. Blain played the niave outsider in "Les Cousins" while Brialy played the established insider, both of which were reversals of their roles in "Le Beau Serge."

The film centers on two cousins, Charles and Paul. The naive, innocent, and idealistic Charles has moved to Paris to share his uncle's apartment with his dissolute, profligate, and jaded cousin Paul. Both are studying for their law exams. However, while Charles diligently studies, Paul throws raucous parties, is constantly intoxicated, and hangs around unscrupulous people.

After Charles falls in love with Florence, a friend of Paul, Florence decides to move in with the two of them and become sexually involved with Paul, as a way to frustrate Charles. The despondent Charles continues to push himself in his studies. However, Paul's success and Charles's failure sends Charles into a dangerous behaviors.

I was completely engaged with the film from beginning to end, simply due to the frustration I felt from Charles's continued rejections. After falling in love with someone, she not only rejects him, she moves in him only to have relations with his cousins instead. After this, I thought, "Oh, so he's going to crack down on studying and pass his law exam while Paul's partying and behavior will yield unsavory results." Rather, his studying led to nothing and Paul passed anyway. Once again, Paul's expectations are not only not met, but yield seemingly punishable results.

The film takes on a very nihilistic perspective with this thematic point, as well as its tragic ending. I thought "Le Beau Serge" also seemed to demonstrate a hopeless perspective, yet our protagonist's determination left us with a grain of hope all the same. However, with "Les Cousins," there seems to be no sense of hope to be found. Life isn't fair and nothing will be as you would like it to be.

I think Chabrol's direction elevates the "Cinema of Quality" that France had come to be known for to more "New Wave" flavors. The "New Wave" sense of quality seems to be seeping through the cracks with its tonal atmosphere. However, its polished quality doesn't quite fit this into the New Wave category for me. It merely is indicative of a tonal shift that is to come.

Overall, "Les Cousins" really surprised me. Both "Le Beau Serge" and "Les Cousins" seem interested in tonal nihilism with a New Wave breeziness. Now that I've seen two Chabrol films, it's safe to say that I am excited about his more celebrated works to come. 



Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

La Dolce Vita (1960)

Image
  Federico Fellini's "La Dolce Vita" The famed Italian poet and director Pier Paolo Pasolini once said that Federico Fellini's 1960 masterpiece " La Dolce Vita " was too important to be discussed in the usual way one discusses a film. I absolutely agree. " La Dolce Vita " is not only a monolith in cinematic history - it set a new precedent for how films could be constructed. Its DNA lies in the very components of modern cinematic convention. The themes and narrative beats remain as relevant today as they were in 1960, lending the film a remarkable sense of timelessness. To call " La Dolce Vita " a masterpiece almost feels like an understatement.  The film departs from traditional narrative structure, unfolding instead through a series of interconnected episodes. Marcello Mastroianni stars as Marcello Rubini, a tabloid journalist who aspires to write literature. Navigating the glamorous yet hollow world of Rome's café society, he spend...
Read more

The Silence (1963)

Image
  Ingmar Bergman's "The Silence" There's something very bemusing about Ingmar Bergman's 1963 film " The Silence ." Based on the title, along with the notion that it is the final installment in a trilogy of films centered around 'the absence of God,' I went in believing that it would be emotionally devastated. What I received instead was confusion. Typically, this is a turn off for people. Not I. Confusion, as long as it doesn't signify a convolution in the plot, allows me to enjoy the film on an emotionally deeper level. Despite not completely understanding " The Silence ," I was enthralled by it.  Because the film was released in a post-" Hiroshima Mon Amour ," post-" L'Avventura " world, Bergman gets to craft something with a bit of modernity. By this, I mean the 'plot' is a bit more like the anti-plots found in an Antonioni film.  Two sisters, one with a 10-year-old son, arrive at a hotel in a fict...
Read more

Quai des Orfevres (1947)

Image
  Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Quai des Orfevres" 1947's " Quai des Orfevres " was Henri-Georges Clouzot's first directorial effort after his controversial 1943 film " Le Corbeau ." Clouzot had been banned from filmmaking by the French government for his collaboration with a German film studio financing " Le Corbeau ." However, many didn't quite make the thematic connections with " Le Corbeau "'s anti-Nazi sentiment and felt that the film was critiquing France itself. One Clouzot's ban was lifted, he decided to adapt Stanislas-Andre Steeman's 1942 novel " L'egitime defense ."  Clouzot's film focuses on a married couple, Maurice Martineau and his theater performing wife, Jenny Lamour. After Jenny becomes acquainted with a sleazy businessman, Brignon, who promises her a film deal, the jealous Maurice goes to Brignon's home to kill him only to find him already dead. A police procedure initiated...
Read more