Monday, September 13, 2010

Claude Chabrol (1930-2010)

I have never been very good at eulogizing, but since my budding cinephilia wings were given flight by the likes of the French New Wave (way back in my misbegotten youth!) I should give this one a try - so here goes.  

The one that started it all is gone.  Considered the first of the Cahiers du cinema critics to release a feature film and kick off what would come to be known as the Nouvelle Vague (aka, French New Wave) with his 1958 debut Le Beau Serge.  I must admit to never being quite attuned to M. Chabrol as I have to his compatriots Truffaut, Godard and Rivette (Rohmer is in the same boat so to speak), and must also sadly admit to only having seen four of the auteur's films, but what I have seen I have enjoyed and his unique brand of Hitchcockian neo-noir (or should I say Hitchcocko-Hawksian as Bazin said of M. Chabrol and his pals?), many starring the great Isabelle Huppert, will certainly be missed in and around the cinephiliac world.

No comments: