Spanning nearly 50 years of Chabrol’s career, this retrospective aims to reassess Chabrol’s cinematic legacy as a keen observer of French society and one of France’s most accomplished filmmakers.
On 10 November, Professor Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze (Durham University), co-curator of this film season and Chabrol expert, will present Le Beau Serge (1958), arguably the first full-length film of the groundbreaking New Wave cinema movement.
The season has also been organised in collaboration with Chabrol’s daughter, Cécile Maistre-Chabrol, who will be introducing the screening of Story of Women on 15 November. She will come back to London in January to present her documentary dedicated to her father, Chabrol, l’anticonformiste.
A master of suspense, Claude Chabrol depicted the vices and torments of the petite bourgeoisie like no others. Through his genres of choice, the thriller and the melodrama, his films delve into family dynamics and societal taboos.
A central pattern in his work, strong female characters have been embodied by the likes of Isabelle Huppert, Bernadette Lafont, Stéphane Audran or Sandrine Bonnaire, in memorable performances.
The retrospective includes:
– Le Beau Serge (1958)
– Inspector Lavardin (1986)
– Story of Women (1988)
– The Flower of Evil (2003)
– Good Times Girls (1960)
– Hell (1994)
– La Cérémonie (1995)
– Madame Bovary (1991)
– The Cousins (1959)
– Masks (1987)
– The Colour of Lies (1999)
– Twisting the Knife (1997)
– Betty (1992)
– Violette (1978)
Venue
Ciné Lumière at the Institut français, 17 Queensberry Place, London SW7 2DT
Press Contact
Natacha Antolini
natacha.antolini@institut-francais.org.uk / 020 7871 3521