From the director’s début feature Le Beau Serge (1958) – that launched the New Wave – to instant classics (La Cérémonie), and lesser-known gems such as Les Bonnes Femmes (1960) or Violette Nozière (1977), dark secrets are uncovered, taboos explored and appearances deconstructed.
Through his genres of choice, the thriller and the melodrama, Chabrol brings Tolstoy’s motto that ‘every unhappy family is unhappy in its own way’ to a whole new level. As a repressed, toxic environment in which forbidden desires often result in murder, the Family provides the ideal breeding grounds for the director to analyse moral flaws with his customary detachment and inscrutability, as well as his great eye for human comedy.
We hope that this varied selection will help to reassess Chabrol’s cinematic legacy and cast him, not only as the sharpest satirical observer of the French bourgeoisie, but as one of the most talented French directors of all times.
Organised in collaboration with the director’s daughter and collaborator, Cécile Maistre-Chabrol, and Chabrol specialist Prof. Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze (Durham University).
This film season will continue from January 2025 with more titles, including Violette Nozière, Chabrol, l’Anticonformiste and Masks.
