Claude Chabrol

At 80 years old, Claude Chabrol has this physical status:

Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (24 June 1930 – September 10, 2010) was a French film producer and a member of the French New Wave (nouvelle vague) group of filmmakers who first rose to prominence at the end of the 1950s.

Before beginning his career as a film critic, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, Éric Rohmer, and Jacques Rivette were among his colleagues and contemporaries. Chabrol's career began with Le Beau Serge (1958), based on Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt (1943).

Thrillers became a trademark for Chabrol, with a distanced objectivity as a characteristic.

In Les Biches (1968), La Femme infidèle (1969), and Le Boucher (1970), all starring Stéphane Audran, who was his wife at the time. Chabrol, who was sometimes described as a "mainstream" New Wave director, stayed prolific and influential throughout his half-century career.

Isabelle Huppert was the protagonist in Violette Nozière in 1978.

On the strength of that effort, the pair branched out to others, including Madame Bovary (1991) and La Cérémonie (1996).

"There are some filmmakers whose films are more difficult to comprehend or evoke on paper," film critic John Russell Taylor said, "particularly because so much of the overall effect of Chabrol's sheer hedonistic enthusiasm for the medium." Chabrol, James Monaco's "the craftsman par excellence of the New Wave," and his variations on a theme give us a glimpse of the film's exactness and precision, which we don't get from the more varied experiments in the genre of Truffaut or Godard.

Personal life

Chabrol's first marriage to Agnès Goute (1956-1962) left a son, Matthieu Chabrol, a composer who scored the majority of his father's films from the early 1980s, according to Chabrol. He divorced Agnès for marrying actress Stéphane Audran, with whom he had a son, actor Thomas Chabrol. They were married from 1964 to 1978. Aurore Paquiss, his third wife, has been a script editor since the 1950s. He had four children. Chabrol, a well-known gourmet chef, shot ten Days Wonder in Alsace only because he wanted to visit its restaurants. Although Chabrol acknowledges Alfred Hitchcock's influence in his work, he has stated that "others have influenced me more." Murnau, the great silent film producer...Ernst Lubitsch and Fritz Lang were two of my three most influential influences.

Chabrol died of leukemia on September 12, 2010. He is buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in north-east Paris.

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Life and career

Claude Henri Jean Chabrol was born in Paris on June 24th, 1930 to Yves Chabrol and Madeleine Delarbre, and grew up in Sardent, France, a village in the province of Creuse 400 kilometers (240 miles) south of Paris. Chabrol said he always thought of himself as a country person, not as a Parisian. Both Chabrol's father and grandfather were pharmacists, and Chabrol was supposed to follow in the family business. However, Chabrol was "seized by the demon of cinema" and ran a film club in a barn in Sardent between the ages of 12 and 14. He began to write about the thriller genre, detective stories, and other popular fiction at this time.

Chabrol left Paris to study pharmacology and literature at Sorbonne, where he received a licence en lettres after World War II. According to some biographies, he briefly studied law and political science at the École Libre des Sciences Politiques. During his stay in Chabrol, I became familiar with the postwar cine club culture and frequented Henri Langlois' Cinémathèque Française and Le Quartier Latin, where he first encountered Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette, Jean-Luc Godard, François Truffaut, and other future Cahiers du Cinéma journalists and French New Wave filmmakers. Chabrol completed his compulsory military service in the French Medical Corps, served in Germany, and reached the rank of sergeant. Chabrol has said that although he was in the army he served as a film projectionist. Since being barred from service, he joined Cahiers du Cinéma as a staff writer, criticizing then-contemporary French films and championing Auteur theory. Chabrol, a film critic, advocated for realism both physically and visually, mise-en-scene, and deep focus cinematography, which, he wrote, "brings the spectator closer to the image" and encourages "both a more vivacious mental attitude on the part of the spectator and a more positive contribution to the action in progress." During this time, he also wrote for Arts magazine. "Little Themes," a review of genre films, and "The Evolution of Detective Films" were two of Chabrol's most popular papers.

Chabrol was briefly employed as a public relations man at 20th Century Fox in 1955, but was told he was "the worst press officer they've ever seen" and was suspended by Jean-Luc Godard, who later reported that it was even worse. He helped finance Rohmer's short film Le coup du berger in 1956 and later helped finance the Véronique et son cancre. Chabrol never made a short film nor did he work as an assistant on other developers' projects before he made his first feature film debut. Chabrol and Eric Rohmer co-wrote Hitchcock (Paris: Éditions Universitaires, 1957), a review of director Alfred Hitchcock's film The Wrong Man. Although Chabrol had claimed that Rohmer deserved the bulk of the book's success, he concentrated on the sections relating to Hitchcock's early American films, Rebecca, Notorious, and Stage Fright. In 1954, Chabrol interviewed Hitchcock and François Truffaut on the set of To Catch a Thief, where the two actors famously stepped into a water tank after being chased by Hitchcock. Hitchcock told Truffaut that he always thought of them after they saw "ice cubes in a glass of whisky."

Chabrol, the most prolific of the big New Wave writers, lasted almost one year from 1958 to his death. His early films (1958-1993) are often regarded as part of the New Wave and have the same experimental quality that characterizes the movement; however, his later early films are often thought of as deliberately commercial rather than experimental. Chabrol was unable to obtain film financing in the mid-sixties, so he created a sequence of commercial "potboilers" and spy spoofs, which none of the other New Wave filmmakers did not achieve.

Chabrol married Agnès Goute in 1952, and his wife inherits a considerable amount of money from relatives in 1957. Chabrol made his first film directorial debut with Le Beau Serge in December of this year. Chabrol spent three months in Sardent, using a small crew and little known actors. The film's budget was $85,000. As the new medical school graduate François returns to Sardent and discovers that Serge has become an alcoholic after his physically retarded first child's premature birth, Jean-Claude Brialy stars as François and Gérard Blain as Serge. Despite suffering from tuberculosis, François drags Serge through a snowstorm to see the birth of his second child, giving Sergeant a reason to live while killing himself in the process. Le Beau Serge is considered the first film of the French New Wave Film movement, which would peak between 1959 and 1962. Chabrol was the first of his friends to finish a film (although Jacques Rivette had already begun filming his first feature film, Paris nous appartient), and it immediately earned critical attention and was a box office hit. It took home the Grand Prix at the Locarno Film Festival and Prix Jean Vigo. Critics also found similarities to Hitchcock's films, such as the motifs of doubling and re-occurrences and the "Catholic guilt transference" that Chabrol had written about extensively in his and Rohmer's book a year earlier. Chabrol said he made the film as a "goodbye to Catholicism," but many commentators have described his first film as very different from any of his subsequent films.

Chabrol followed this triumph with Les Cousins in 1958. In many ways, Le Beau Serge's responsible student now plays the decadent and insensitive Paul, though the irresponsible student Charles is the hard-working law student. In this film, country cousin Charles arrives in the capital of Paris to live with his wealthy cousin Paul who was attending school. This was the first of many Chabrol films to feature characters named Paul and Charles, and later films would often feature a female named Hélène. Les Cousins has more than his first film, including the Hitchcock influence, a portrait of the French bourgeoisie, characters with ambiguous motives, and a murder. It was also Chabrol's first film co-written with longtime collaborator Paul Gégauff, of whom Chabrol once said, "I go off and search for Gégauff because I want cruelty." Paul is an expert at gingering things up. In two seconds flat, he can make a character appear completely ridiculous and obnoxious. Les Cousins was another box office hit in France and captured the Golden Bear at the 9th Berlin International Film Festival.

At the time of designing Le Beau Serge, Chabrol formed his own production firm, AJYM Productions (acronym based on the initials of his wife's and children's names). Chabrol began sponsoring several of his colleagues' films after the success of Le Beau Serge and Les Cousins. The AJYM funded Eric Rohmer's film The Sign of Leo, partially funded Rivette's We Definate, and Philippe de Broca's Les Jeux de l'amour and Le farceur. He also donated excess film from Les Cousins to Rivette, giving us a complete look at Paris. Chabrol served as a technical advisor on Jean-Luc Godard's film debut Breathless, as well as appearing in small parts in several of his friends' and his own early films. Chabrol has been dubbed "the godfather of the French New Wave" in the early careers of so many of his colleagues, but many film historians tend to ignore this contribution and dismiss Chabrol entirely.

Chabrol was given a substantial budget to produce his first color film, double tour (Léda) in the spring of 1959, after two box office hits in a row. Jean-Paul Belmondo plays Laszlo and Antonella Lualdo, two outsiders of a wealthy family with different experiences when attempting to contact them. Chabrol adapted Paul Gégauff's script from a Stanley Ellin book, and the film is known for its oedipal sex triangle and murder scenario. Despite being present in many of the New Wave films shot at the same time, the film was shot on location in Aix-en-Provence with cinematographer Henri Deca, and contains a choppy, hand-held camera video that is atypical of a Chabrol film. The film was both a box office and critical disappointment, and critic Roy Armes sluggish on "Chabrol's lack of sympathy for his characters and his love of overacting."

Les Bonnes Femmes, Chabrol's 1960 film, is regarded as one of many critics' favorites early films. Bernadette Lafont, Clotilde Joano, Stéphane Audran, and Lucile Saint-Simon are four Parisian appliance store employees who all dream of an escape from their boring lives and their different experiences. The film's most notable critics, including Robin Wood and James Monaco, lauded it. However, some left-wing commentators chastised Chabrol's depiction of working-class people and accused him of mocking their lifestyles. Chabrol's second trip to the theater was another box office disappointment. It was followed by two films that were also financially unsuccessful, but Chabrol has confessed to making solely for "commercial reasons." Les Godelureaux was born in 1960 and hated by Chabrol. The Third Lover (L'Oeil du Malin), which appeared in 1961, received higher reviews than Chabrol's previous films, with critics pointing out that Chabrol's films without Paul Gégauff were much more compassionate and realistic than those with Gégauff. It was shot on location in Munich. Although she had appeared in many Chabrol films before, the Third Lover was the first Chabrol film in which Stéphane Audran appeared as the female lead. They married in 1964 and then continued to work together into the late 1970s.

Chabrol created Ophelia, a loosening of Hamlet that was another box office disappointment. He had a minor hit film with Landru later this year, directed by Françoise Sagan and starring Charles Denner, Michèle Morgan, Danielle Darrieux, and Hildegard Knef. Henri Désiré Landru, the French serial killer, was depicted in the film, which had previously inspired Charlie Chaplin's film Monsieur Verdoux.

Chabrol made six films from 1964 to 1967, one of which were critically and commercially bleak, and this period is regarded as a low point in his career. Four of these films were shot in Le Tigre aime la chair fraiche and Le Tigre se parfume à la dynamite, which were in the then-popular genre of spy spoof films. "I like to get to the absolute limit of principles," Chabrol said. They were vehical, so let's get it up to our necks." A Variety newspaper said, "Vital To Keep Making Pictures; What Sort Is Relevant; Chabrol No. 'Doctrinaire' Type" - "Vital To Keep Making Photographs" During this period; "Doctrinaire" Type" - "Doctrinaire" Type" is not applicable; Chabrol appeared in 1965 on the film "La Muette," which was also included in the New Wave portmanteau film Six in Paris. Chabrol appeared in Stéphane Audran as a middle-aged couple struggling with their enthralling teenage daughter. In 1964, Chabrol directed a MacBeth stage performance for the Théâtre Récamier.

Chabrol began working with film director André Génovès in 1968 and began to make more acclaimed films that would later be referred to as his "Golden Era" later in life. The bulk of these films revolved around bourgeois characters, and a murder is almost always a part of the plot. The majority of these films were based on middle-aged people, unlike his earlier films. During this period, Chabrol met with actors Audran and Michel Bouquet, cinematographer Jean Rabier, editor Jacques Gaillard, composer Guy Chichignoud, musician Guy Gichignoud, producer Guy Littaye, sound technician Guy Chichignoud, composer Pierre Jansen, composer Guy Gichignoud, producer Génové, and co-writer Paul Gégauff all worked with the same people, including actors Audran, film director Jacques Gaillard

Les Biches, one of Chabrol's most celebrated creations, was created in 1968. Stéphane Audran, the film's most popular and bisexual Frédérique, meets a young protege in the bisexual Why (Jacqueline Sassard), until the pair become the lover of a young architect named Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant). Why does Frédérique die, but it's unclear if she murdered her cheating husband or the person with whom her boyfriend was cheating with. The film received critical acclaim and was a hit at the box office. Chabrol released a similar film The Unfaite Wife (La Femme infidèle), in which a husband named Charles murders the lover of his cheating wife. It was then remade in 2002 by director Adrian Lyne. Chabrol's tenure as This Man Must Die (Que la bête meure) ended in 1969. After Paul killed Charles' son in a hit and run car accident based on an original story by Cecil Day-Lewis, he plans to murder Paul (Jean Yanne). However, Chabrol has said that "you'll never see a Charles kill a Paul." Never" has been a student at a university. The film was especially lauded for its landscape cinematography.

Jean Yanne and Stéphane Audran appeared in The Butcher (Le boucher) in 1970. Yanne portrays Popaul, a former war hero known for his violent conduct, in the prehistoric cave drawings depicted in the Périgords. "The best French film since the liberation," Le Figaro, a French newspaper, referred to it as "the best French film since the liberation." Chabrol created Just Before Nightfall, another look at bourgeois life in The Breach (La Rupture) in 1970. Michel Bouquet plays Charles, the ad executive who murders his mistress, but he admits to his husband (François Périer) and his wife (Stéphane Audran), hoping for their damnation. To his surprise, they are only compassionate and forgiving to his convict, and Charles cannot find solace in the guilt of what he has done. Chabrol produced Ten Days' Wonder (La Décade prodée), based on a Ellery Queen story. Michel Piccoli, Anthony Perkins, and Orson Welles appeared in the film, which was shot in English and starred Orson Welles. Its critical reviews were skewed. Dr. Popaul, who equally loasted Dr. Popaul, was followed by the actor in this film starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Mia Farrow. Critics compared the film unfavorably to Chabrol's earlier film, which was based on a "Landru-like" theme. "The novelty of Docteur Popaul comes from the offhandedness with which the criminal history is viewed," critic Jacques Siclier said.

Chabrol's 1973 film Wedding in Blood (Les Noces rouges), made his first film with political themes. Audran and Michel Piccoli are lovers ploting to murder Audran's husband, who is the corrupt gaullist mayor of their town. To their surprise, the President of France has ordered that no probe be launched into the mayor's murder, causing the murderer and his family to suspect political involvement in their murder. The French government suspended the film for one month in the spring of 1973, reportedly in order not to surprise members of the jury of a turbulent criminal trial. Chabrol continued this national theme with Nada, in which a group of young anarchists kidnap an American ambassador. It was Chabrol's first film not to be centered on the bourgeois since Le Beau Serge. Chabrol recovered to more grounded ground in 1975 with the release of A Piece of Joy (Une partie de plaisir). Paul Gégauff, a film screenwriter, plays a writer with a struggling marriage that has resulted in tragedy. (Gégauff was stabbed to death by his second wife in 1983) His wife is played by his real-life first wife Danièle Gégauff (already divorced when this film was made) and his daughter is played by Clemence Gégauff. Richard Roud's review of the film "rather curiously loathsome."

Chabrol's Golden Period came to an end in 1978 with a film directed by his most admired and controversial artist, Violette Nozière. Isabelle Huppert was portrayed in the film as a young Parisian girl from a respectable petit-bourgeois family in the 1930s. Violette sneaks out late at night to pick up guys and eventually hires syphilis, although she argues that her parents must be hereditary before she murders them. The film was controversial in France, but it was praised in other nations.

Chabrol and the 1980s and 1990s were involved in numerous television and film projects. Poulet au vinaigre (1985) and Masques (1987), two of his films, were entered into the 38th Cannes Film Festival and the 37th Berlin International Film Festival respectively. Madame Bovary (1991), 1991), was nominated for the Golden Globe Award for Best Foreign Language Film and the Academy Award for Best Costume Design. It was also included in the 17th Moscow International Film Festival. La Cérémonie (1995) is perhaps his most celebrated film from this period, having been nominated for many César Awards and being included in the 52nd Venice International Film Festival among other things. The Color of Lies, his 1999 film, was nominated for the 49th Berlin International Film Festival.

In 1995, Chabrol was given the Prix René Clair de la Fayette for his body of work.

Chabrol's film and TV series continued well into the 2000s.

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