Le Beau Serge

Chabrol’s début is arguably the first full-length film of the groundbreaking New Wave cinema movement. Based in a small village of Central France (where Chabrol spent the war years), Le Beau Serge explores the tormented relationship between François (Jean-Claude Brialy), an educated and sickly young man going through a spiritual crisis, with Serge (Gérard Blain), his former-friend-turned alcoholic. In this deeply personal film, Chabrol experimented with film technique and form (from the documentary to the melodrama) while providing a bleak, thought-provoking portrait of 1950s provincial life rife with alcoholism and incest. Its instant critical and commercial success (a Jean-Vigo prize as well as the Best Direction Award at the Locarno Film Festival) secured Chabrol’s place as one of the most talented and innovative filmmakers of his generation.