In a film-making career which spans over forty years, from the turbulent years of the New Wave where he first made his mark, Claude Chabrol has become one of the most prolific and widely respected of French film directors. 

The son of a chemist, Chabrol came from a comfortable middle-class family.  He studied law before discovering a passion for cinema which brought him into contact with François Truffaut, Jean-Luc Godard and Eric Rohmer.  These were a group of rampant cinephiles who, with Chabrol, would initiate a radical departure in film-making in the late 1950s, the French New Wave.  All four young men began by writing critiques in the influential journal Cahiers du Cinema, in which they condemned the current vogue of quality French cinema and praised directors who embossed their own stamp on a film, adopting a stylised, auteur approach to film-making. 

One such director whom Chabrol admired greatly was Alfred Hitchcock, a director who would show a marked influence on Chabrol in his own subsequent films.  In 1957, Chabrol collaborated with Rohmer in writing a detailed essay on Hitchcock’s approach to film-making.

With money inherited by his wealthy wife, Chabrol was able to start making his own films.  His first film, Le Beau Serge , made in 1958, marked not just the start of Chabrol’s long career as a director but the beginning of the New Wave era, which would see an insurgence of talent and a radically new approach to film-making in French cinema.  What distinguished Le Beau Serge from conventional cinema of the day was its attempt to place the director, the author, at the centre of the film.  As a result, the film has a strong personal bias and a unique sense of identity.  Chabrol’s use of inexperienced, unknown actors, pretty crude editing, extensive location filming and a sense of spontaneity are characteristics which would be very noticeable in subsequent films made by the New Wave film directors.

Chabrol was less successful than his contemporaries, particularly Truffaut and Godard, in drawing audiences and attracting criticism (good and bad).   Although something of an eccentric, he was probably among the most conventional of the New Wave film directors, avoiding the cinematographic excesses of Godard, the languid lyricism of Rohmer and the emotional intensity of Truffaut.  However, from very early on, Chabrol’s films displayed a very distinctive style which suggested an uncanny eye for detail, an unparalleled understanding of human nature, and great skill in making compelling films.  If anything, it was the content of his films, more than style, which shocked cinema audiences.  Both Les bonnes femmes and L'oeil du malin were condemned as irresponsible and immoral works of cinema, although today they are regarded as amongst Chabrol's finest achievements.

The majority of Chabrol’s films are psychological thrillers set in an apparently idyllic bourgeois environment, and it is here that the Hitchcock influence can be seen most clearly.  Each one of these films has a victim and a predator, and it is usually the predator with whom the audience is led to sympathise.  The predator is usually presented as a victim of circumstances and, no matter how bad the crime, his or her actions can always be vindicated.  This can be seen most clearly in Chabrol’s best films of this genre, L’Oeil du malin, Le Boucher, Que la bête meure and La Ceremonie, although the same theme recurs in most of his films. 

The setting of Chabrol’s films is crucial in unleashing the full dramatic impact of the film’s denouement (which usually involves a violent and bloody death).  In Le Boucher, it is scarcely believable that the idyllic tranquillity of a provençal village could harbour a psychopathic killer, an apparent contradiction which makes the film’s ending genuinely horrific.  Similarly, the apparent normality of the bourgeois family setting in La Ceremonie allows Chabrol to engineer one of his most disturbing psychological dramas. 

Even in those films which are not specifically thrillers, Chabrol’s approach, ironic, sombre and somewhat twisted, gives a subtle thriller-like dimension to his subject.   His powerful historic drama, Une affaire de femmes is as compelling and disturbing as Chabrol’s most intentionally shocking thrillers, as is his version of Madame Bovary, and also Betty, his chilling analysis of a woman in mid-life crisis.

Chabrol’s cinema is also characterised by some exemplary acting performances, showing that, just like his own idols, John Ford and Alfred Hitchcock, he is able to get the absolute best from his actors.   Many actors reappear again and again in Chabrol’s films, particularly Stéphane Audran (Chabrol’s wife for many years), Jean Yanne and Isabelle Huppert, something which helps to maintain and re-inforce the perfect Chabrol formula.

With around fifty films (mostly cinema, but some television) under his belt, Claude Chabrol continues making engrossing films, apparently undaunted by age, and undeterred by changing fashions.   The quality of his films and his unique style will ensure that his work will continue to attract cinema audiences for many years to come.