Claude Chabrol

I’ve only seen one Chabrol film “A Comedy of Power” loved it but feel like I’m missing something because when the man passed he’s been repraised and missed deeply. Criterion has some of his works to I believe but am just starting to learn more about him.
Now unfortunately he had to die for everyone to start talking about him again but please:
Who else out there knows his work?
What makes him so damned beloved?
How does his older work compare to the new?
Who would you say comes close to being like him today?

http://www.movingimagesource.us/articles/the-unseen-chabrol-pt-1-20101012

http://blogs.suntimes.com/scanners/2010/10/ruptures_three_openingclosing.html

If you have access to the BBC Iplayer answer these questions for yourself by watching the superb Le Boucher http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00v785s/Le_boucher/

Greetings Adam,

Unfortunately Criterion doesn’t have any of his films but KINO in the US does. Also, you can get his collections quite cheap on Amazon UK as well.

Chabrol is beloved not only for the films in his oeuvre but he also came at a time when his colleagues Jean-Luc Godard, Jacques Rivette, Francois Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and a few others were emerging as well. Also, like them, he was a critic for Cahiers du Cinema.

Also, he is one of the more successful French New wave directors in breaking into mainstream cinema as his film “Les Cousins” was a commercial success.

My advice if you don’t want to break the bank and want to discover Chabrol’s work is to purchase/watch
“Les Bonnes Femmes” but if you really want to save money and watch many of his films all at once (and have an all-region player), I recommend these as you get six or more films for like under $20:

This limited edition collector’s boxed set includes: ‘Les Biches’ (1968), ‘La Femme Infidele’ (1969), ‘Que La Bete Meure’ (1969), ‘Le Boucher’ (1969), Juste Avant Le Nuit’ (1971), ‘Les Noches Rouges’ (1973), ‘Nada’ (1974) and ‘Madame Bovary’ (1991). It comes to about $19 (US) for eight films.

link

Includes the Claude Chabrol films INNOCENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS, WHO’S GOT THE BLACK BOX?, THE POWER OF EVIL, PLEASURE PARTY, THE BREAK UP, and COP AU VIN. Comes to about $17.50 (US) for six films.

link

Keep in mind Chabrol is a filmmaker with an enormous body of work. The quality, of said work is generally exceptionally high, sometimes varies. But the filmmaking skill is always apparent. In any event one shouldn’t make up one’s mind on him on the basis of one or two movies.

My faves include La Ceremonie, Betty, Les Bonnes Femmes, Marie-Chatal vs. Le Dr. Kha, and the rather recent A Girl Cut in Two.

Recommendations:

Les Bonnes Femmes
La Femme infidèle
Le Boucher
Betty
La Cérémonie
Flower of Evil

Thanks folks, this a good starting point for a Chabrol virgin like myself.

Nobody likes Le Beau Serge?

Les Bonnes Femmes, Le Boucher and Les Biches are incomparably great.

I also really liked his take on Flaubert and Madame Bovary in 1991, and two more obscure titles, nevertheless worth a look — Leda (1959) and the bizarre The Champagne Murders (1967), one of his only films in English.

Wow thanks everyone I’m not sure about purchasing anything at the moment, little cash strapped, but I’ll definitely be sure to give a good search on what’s available online. And Allan I checked out that link, said it was no longer available but I’m sure there’s a torrent out there or a decent rental store that carries it.

Thanks again, Adam

:)

I bought that 8-disc Volume 1 box set Kndy posted the link to (the one with Le Boucher on the cover), and it’s probably the single best box set I’ve ever bought.

I’d always loved Le Boucher and it gets better on each successive viewing, but I didn’t really know what to expect from the others. Les Biches, Que La Bete Meure, and Juste Avant Le Nuite are all outstanding, I’ve watched each one 3 or 4 times and they’re right up there with Le Boucher in my book. Les Noces Rouges is great nasty fun, Nada is very good and and stars Fabio Testi aka the coolest man alive. The only one I wasn’t mad about was Madame Bovary, despite being a big Isabelle Huppert fan. I prefer other Chabrol/Huppert collaborations like Une affaire des femmes, Merci Pour Le Chocolat, and best of all La Cérémonie. There was one I saw on TV as a kid that I loved, Le Cri du Hibou, and I’ve been wanting to see it again for years now but it’s about €40 on Amazon.

There’s still lots of his films I have yet to see (in fact I haven’t seen anything at all from the Volume 2 box set). But from what I have seen, what makes Chabrol special is the way his best films capture something vile and diabolical about human nature, but do so in a way that’s suspenseful and entertaining and often wickedly funny (I’m thinking of the dinner party scene in Que La Bete Meure or Huppert’s behaviour in La Cérémonie). Hmmm, I feel a little Chabrol-fest approaching here too!