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Claude Chabrol
Director / Screenwriter
1930 - 2010
Born June 24, Paris, France
Key Production Countries: France, Italy, Germany
Key Genres: Drama, Psychological Drama, Crime Drama, Thriller, Psychological Thriller, Post-Noir (Modern Noir), Mystery, Marriage Drama, Satire
Key Collaborators: Jean Rabier (Cinematographer), Jacques Gaillard (Editor), Stephane Audran (Leading Player), Monique Fardoulis (Editor), Pierre Jansen (Composer), Matthieu Chabrol (Composer), Andre Genoves (Producer), Paul Gegauff (Screenwriter), Guy Littaye (Production Designer), Marin Karmitz (Producer)

Highly Recommended: The Third Lover (1962), La Femme infidèle (1969), This Man Must Die (1969), Le Boucher (1970)*, L'Enfer (1993)
Recommended: Le Beau Serge (1958), A double tour (1959), Les Bonnes femmes (1960), Les Biches (1968), Just Before Nightfall (1971), Wedding in Blood (1973), Pleasure Party (1975), La Ceremonie (1995), Merci pour le chocolat (2000), A Comedy of Power (2005)
Worth a Look: Les Cousins (1959), Wise Guys (1961), La Rupture (1970), Ten Days' Wonder (1972), Innocents with Dirty Hands (1975), Cop au Vin (1984), Story of Women (1988), The Swindle (1997), The Flower of Evil (2002), The Bridesmaid (2004), A Girl Cut in Two (2006)
Approach with Caution: The Road to Corinth (1967), Blood Relatives (1978), The Cry of the Owl (1987), The Colour of Lies (1998)
* Listed in TSPDT's 1,000 Greatest Films section.

 
 
 
Links: [ Amazon ] [ IMDB ] [ TCMDB ] [ All-Movie Guide ] [ Senses of Cinema: Great Directors ] [ Film Reference ] [ The Claude Chabrol Project ] [ Films de France Biography ] [ Images Feature ] [ Claude Chabrol.com ] [ Strictly Film School ] [ Wikipedia ] [ Guardian Article (2009) ] [ Guardian Obituary (2010) ] [ New York Times Obituary (2010) ] [ Roger Ebert's Journal (2010) ] [ Moving Image Source Article (2010) ]
Books: [ Claude Chabrol (French Film Directors) ] [ Claude Chabrol
 
La Femme Infidele (1969)This Man Must Die (1969)Le Boucher (1970)Le Beau Serge (1958)
 
     
  "If Jean-Luc Godard appeals to critics because of his extreme interest in politics and film theory and if François Truffaut appeals to the popular audience because of his humanism and sentimentality, it is Claude Chabrol - film critic, filmmaker, philosopher - whose work consistently offers the opportunity for the most balanced appeal... Chabrol's work can perhaps best be seen as a cross between the unassuming and popular genre film and the pretentious elitist art film." - Charles Derry (The St. James Film Directors Encyclopedia, 1998)  
     
  "Chabrol, whose admiration for the Hitchcock thriller style is evident in some of his own films (The Champagne Murders, This Man Must Die, Cop au Vin), is more typically concerned with exploring, in a curiously detached way, personal relationships (Les Cousins, Les Biches). His favorite target remains the urban French petite-bourgeoisie, the milieu of his youth." - (The MacMillan International Film Encyclopedia, 1994)  
     
  "While Claude Chabrol is certainly one of the most important filmmakers to have emerged from the the French New Wave, his consistency of theme and assured, expressive style are often betrayed by poor material, resulting in a career as uneven as it is prolific... A consummate craftsman, his interest in human emotions often seems intellectually motivated, which may explain the erratic nature of his work." - Geoff Andrew (The Film Handbook, 1989)  
     
  "Emotional relationships marked by physical and psychological violence distinguish Chabrol's films." - William R. Meyer (The Film Buff's Catalog, 1978)  
     
  "I like making black and white films in natural surroundings, but I much prefer shooting a color film inside a studio where the colors are easier to control." - Claude Chabrol  
     
  "It's often wrong to write for specific actors because one ends up using what is least interesting about them, their mannerisms and habits. I prefer not to write for specific people." - Claude Chabrol  
     
 
Please note that the rating given for this director (see top-right) is based only on the films we have seen (listed above). Films by this director that we haven't seen include Bluebeard (1962), The Champagne Murders (1967), High Heels (1972), Nada (1974), The Twist (1976), Violette (1978), The Hatter's Ghost (1982), Inspecteur Lavardin (1986), Masques (1987), Club Extinction (1989), Madame Bovary (1991), and Betty (1992).
 
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"His admiration for Hitchcock turned him toward moody psychodramas, often with touches of grotesque humor (Les Bonnes femmes, Ophélia). Chabrol churned out lurid espionage pictures before embarking on a series of psychological thrillers: La Femme infidele (1969), This Man Must Die (1969) , Le Boucher  (1970), and others. Like Hitchcock, Chabrol traces how the tensions of middle-class life explode into madness and violence. By 2001 , Chabrol had made over fifty features and several television episodes, remaining the most commercially flexible and pragmatic of the directors to emerge from Cahiers." - Kristin Thompson & David Bordwell, Film History: An Introduction

 
 
Top 250 Directors 
Fringe Benefits
Gerald Peary's Magnificent Seven (2006)
501 Movie Directors: A Comprehensive Guide to the Greatest Filmmakers
 
See Also
Luis Buñuel
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Michel Deville
Jean-Luc Godard
Michael Haneke
Alfred Hitchcock
Fritz Lang
Louis Malle
François Ozon
Otto Preminger
Eric Rohmer
François Truffaut
 
 
 
         
         

 

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