The Death of a Popular New Wave Director
Claude Chabrol passed away today, 80 years old. One of the great filmmakers of the French New Wave era, Chabrol started out as a critic for Cahiers du cinéma, just like his fellow colleagues Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Eric Rohmer and Jacques Rivette. The reason why I chose the title above for this blog entry is the fact that unlike most of his contemporaries Chabrol remained popular as a filmmaker more or less throughout his career, a reliable, usually mainstream director who admired Alfred Hitchcock and learned a lot from him, which was evident in his films. He will be remembered for Le Beau Serge (1958), Les Biches (1968), Le Boucher (1969), Cop au Vin (1984) and La Cérémonie (1995), among others.
My favorite Chabrol quote is from a Roger Ebert interview in the 1970s where he said: “I am a Communist, certainly, but that doesn’t mean I have to make films about the wheat harvest.” Chabrol lived by that rule, often focusing on characters in very comfortable milieus, engaging in sinister activities. In the clip above, YouTube user lessthanzervo reminds us of Chabrol’s body of work.
Published by Stefan Hedmark 2010-09-13 13:54
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