Claude Chabrol

 Claude Chabrol




Le Beau Serge (1958)

Les Cousins (1959)



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2. Le Beau Serge (1958)


While Jean-Luc Godard and Francois Truffaut are the first names that come to mind when one thinks of "Cahiers du Cinema" critics-turned-directors, it is Claude Chabrol who actually started this trend. His debut film, 1958's "Le Beau Serge" centers on a young man returning to his hometown to find it in a state of listlessness. He believes that his presence in the village will reinvigorate the emotional well-being of everyone there, including his best friend, Serge. Although "Le Beau Serge" isn't representative of the more 'freeform' Nouvelle Vague films that would explode onto the scene afterwards, it is still considered an important part of the movement. Chabrol's directional choices, along with the inherent realism of the piece, make the story inhabitable, the characters dimensional, and the overall story that much more compelling.




1. Les Cousins (1959)


There are many thematic parallels between Claude Chabrol's first two feature films, 1958's "Le Beau Serge" and 1959's "Les Cousins." Even the two lead actors are the same, despite swamping the roles of naïve outsider and established insider. However, "Les Cousins" seems to take the thematic elements of "Le Beau Serge" into less hopeful, more nihilistic and fatalistic directions. The film centers on two cousins living in one apartment, both studying for their law exams. While one parties and drinks, the other diligently studies. However, the outcome for both provides frustration for the viewer, who is intended to identify with the studious Charles. Charles continues to try and attain things that his cousin Paul seems to snatch from him. This Cain-and-Able-esque thematic format by Chabrol, along with New Wave breeziness dripping through the seems, eggs on a sense of frustration with life and its seemingly unjust, and almost malicious, intent. 

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