I've just discovered your channel and I'm really enjoying your choices. I'm a massive Chabrol fan and was appreciative of his perfect treatment of Ruth Rendell's A Judgement in Stone in La Ceremonie. Her themes were often about the misundrstandings between the comfortably smug bourgeoisie and the outcasts of society, setting in train a tragic trail of events. Likewise with Les Biches, loosely based on The Talented Mr Ripley.
Another brilliant top 10 that goes much deeper than most TH-cam ‘favourites’ videos. I have a couple of those films in my ‘to see’ list but, beyond that, I don’t seem too feel an urgency to catch up on Chabrol. I don’t know why. I wonder how his reputation has aged in France.? Thanks Mike.
Excellent, interesting video, Mike! I enjoyed it very much, even though I have not seen any of these films. The closest I have come is seeing "Unfaithful" (2002), the American remake of "La Femme Infidèle." 😄
@@michaelbartlettfilm Yes, she is. As I recall, Richard Gere is good in it too. I know he is not a favorite of yours. But in my opinion, he is capable of good work, and I think he does do a good job in "Unfaithful," although I saw it a long time ago (in the theater when it was released) and I don't remember for sure what I thought of his performance. But I think I'd remember if I thought he was lousy in it.
Your commentary here is superb, Michael. You really dug deep and i learned a lot. Your section about Chabrol vis a vis Lang and Hitchcock is spot on IMO. I really love many of Lang's and Hitchcock's movies, Vertigo and Dr.Mabuse the Gambler being two of my 13 favorite films. I love noir more than any other genre and Lang is the master.. Wish I could add my 2 cents on various Chabrol films but I've only seen 2 very early ones. I very much liked Les Cousins. One thing in your opening statement about the most famous New Wave directors one always reads about---don't you think Demy should be included here. PS Re Rivette. What do you think of Paris Belongs To Us. When I first saw it I was young and thought it was excellent. The last time I saw it I was much older and thought it was one of the most boring films I've ever seen....lol
Thanks, Willie. I didn't mention Demy because he was one of the Left Bankers. When I was studying film, they always mentioned the Right Bank first, the Cahiers crew, and Chabrol was always the third guy mentioned! I feel the same way about Paris Belongs To Us - I love Rivette's later work, but that first one is a bit of a bore-athon!
I actually found Le Boucher in a CeX about the time you started the retrospective. Sacre bleu! Really want to get my hands on Le Ceremonie - it sounds fantastic.
Great video. Something I'd like to add to the idea of what you said about the "baroque v. realism" nature of La Rupture is the way it subverts expectation based on the absurdity that the film has set up to that point. Namely in the sequence where the private investigator hired by the family comes up with that fantastical, straight out of a bad melodrama, scheme involving the young girl. As an audience member though it made no logical sense from a real world perspective I fully anticipated it to play out as his diabolical whim intended but then it just plays out essentially how it might in real life when she says something along the lines of "no not her, the other lady with the same name". I think that's perhaps on some level a playful acknowledgement that a film is at the end of the day only a film.
That's what I love about the film, Chabbers is constantly playing with us, leading us up dead ends, pointing up the absurdity of it all, without ever letting us lose sight of the true nightmare of the situation.
Thanks, Mike, for this seriously considered, extensive survey of an important filmmaker who I admit has never been a passionate interest of mine. I've not largely been a keen fan of Lang or Hitchcock, either, primarily because the thriller genre, the specialty of all these directors, has not been a personal favorite. The distinction you carefully make between Chabrol and his models is useful, and elevates Chabrol from someone like Brian De Palma, well known for being a Hitchcock imitator, in that De Palma appropriates much of his master's style for its own sake, while Chabrol goes beyond such surface effects to find his own particular voice and vision. In doing so, the French director staked his claim for being a master in his own right, however unfashionable his overall oeuvre may be at the present moment.
I've just discovered your channel and I'm really enjoying your choices. I'm a massive Chabrol fan and was appreciative of his perfect treatment of Ruth Rendell's A Judgement in Stone in La Ceremonie. Her themes were often about the misundrstandings between the comfortably smug bourgeoisie and the outcasts of society, setting in train a tragic trail of events. Likewise with Les Biches, loosely based on The Talented Mr Ripley.
Thanks, Scott! I think La Ceremonie is particularly fine.
Another brilliant top 10 that goes much deeper than most TH-cam ‘favourites’ videos. I have a couple of those films in my ‘to see’ list but, beyond that, I don’t seem too feel an urgency to catch up on Chabrol. I don’t know why. I wonder how his reputation has aged in France.? Thanks Mike.
I think his reputation has diminished in France as well, sadly. Poor old Chabbers. Still, he had a good life.
Excellent, interesting video, Mike! I enjoyed it very much, even though I have not seen any of these films. The closest I have come is seeing "Unfaithful" (2002), the American remake of "La Femme Infidèle." 😄
I still haven't seen that, though I heard Diane Lane is very good in it?
@@michaelbartlettfilm Yes, she is. As I recall, Richard Gere is good in it too. I know he is not a favorite of yours. But in my opinion, he is capable of good work, and I think he does do a good job in "Unfaithful," although I saw it a long time ago (in the theater when it was released) and I don't remember for sure what I thought of his performance. But I think I'd remember if I thought he was lousy in it.
Your commentary here is superb, Michael. You really dug deep and i learned a lot. Your section about Chabrol vis a vis Lang and Hitchcock is spot on IMO. I really love many of Lang's and Hitchcock's movies, Vertigo and Dr.Mabuse the Gambler being two of my 13 favorite films. I love noir more than any other genre and Lang is the master..
Wish I could add my 2 cents on various Chabrol films but I've only seen 2 very early ones. I very much liked Les Cousins.
One thing in your opening statement about the most famous New Wave directors one always reads about---don't you think Demy should be included here.
PS Re Rivette. What do you think of Paris Belongs To Us. When I first saw it I was young and thought it was excellent. The last time I saw it I was much older and thought it was one of the most boring films I've ever seen....lol
Thanks, Willie. I didn't mention Demy because he was one of the Left Bankers. When I was studying film, they always mentioned the Right Bank first, the Cahiers crew, and Chabrol was always the third guy mentioned! I feel the same way about Paris Belongs To Us - I love Rivette's later work, but that first one is a bit of a bore-athon!
Thank you for the great commentary and listening!
Thanks, Steve!
I actually found Le Boucher in a CeX about the time you started the retrospective. Sacre bleu! Really want to get my hands on Le Ceremonie - it sounds fantastic.
Great film. The ending still packs a punch.
Do not know this topic, but interested.
Hope the vid inspired you to watch his films!
Could you do a Top 10 Brian De Palma list?
Honesty corner - not the biggest fan of Brian. I can only think of one film of his that I really like...
@@michaelbartlettfilm Really? He has loads….Sisters, Casualties of War, Raising Cain, Blow Out.
You’d love them 👌
Great video. Something I'd like to add to the idea of what you said about the "baroque v. realism" nature of La Rupture is the way it subverts expectation based on the absurdity that the film has set up to that point. Namely in the sequence where the private investigator hired by the family comes up with that fantastical, straight out of a bad melodrama, scheme involving the young girl. As an audience member though it made no logical sense from a real world perspective I fully anticipated it to play out as his diabolical whim intended but then it just plays out essentially how it might in real life when she says something along the lines of "no not her, the other lady with the same name". I think that's perhaps on some level a playful acknowledgement that a film is at the end of the day only a film.
That's what I love about the film, Chabbers is constantly playing with us, leading us up dead ends, pointing up the absurdity of it all, without ever letting us lose sight of the true nightmare of the situation.
Thanks, Mike, for this seriously considered, extensive survey of an important filmmaker who I admit has never been a passionate interest of mine. I've not largely been a keen fan of Lang or Hitchcock, either, primarily because the thriller genre, the specialty of all these directors, has not been a personal favorite. The distinction you carefully make between Chabrol and his models is useful, and elevates Chabrol from someone like Brian De Palma, well known for being a Hitchcock imitator, in that De Palma appropriates much of his master's style for its own sake, while Chabrol goes beyond such surface effects to find his own particular voice and vision. In doing so, the French director staked his claim for being a master in his own right, however unfashionable his overall oeuvre may be at the present moment.
Thanks, Barry. I so agree with what you say about De Palma, who, apart from Carrie, has never been a favourite director of mine.