Chabrol's cinema, which started (with) the Nouvelle Vague, is generally associated with a type of psychological thriller, set in the French provinces and marked by a fascination with evil, incest, fragmented families, and inscrutable female characters. This first reappraisal of his filmography (1958-2009) seeks to explore a brand new Chabrol, influenced not only by the usual suspects (Renoir, Lang and Hitchcock) but, more intriguingly, by Kubrick (in Le Boucher) and also, more conceptually and beyond film, by Balzac (the œuvre as mosaic) and Magritte (the œuvre as trompe-l’œil). An aesthetic o ... More

Chabrol's cinema, which started (with) the Nouvelle Vague, is generally associated with a type of psychological thriller, set in the French provinces and marked by a fascination with evil, incest, fragmented families, and inscrutable female characters. This first reappraisal of his filmography (1958-2009) seeks to explore a brand new Chabrol, influenced not only by the usual suspects (Renoir, Lang and Hitchcock) but, more intriguingly, by Kubrick (in Le Boucher) and also, more conceptually and beyond film, by Balzac (the œuvre as mosaic) and Magritte (the œuvre as trompe-l’œil). An aesthetic of opacity is brought to the fore, which deconstructs the apparent clarity and ‘comfort’ of the genre film. Chabrol's films, are indeed both deceptively-accessible and deeply reflexive, to the point of opacity. His ‘crystal-images’ (Deleuze) and unstable, fantastic/Gothic spaces or heterotopias (Foucault), ultimately encourage the viewer to reflect on the relationship between illusion and ‘reality’, the process of theatricalisation and the status of the film image. Case studies include a detailed analysis of some of his latest, little studied films (La Fleur du mal; La Demoiselle d’honneur; La Fille coupée en deux and Bellamy). Through the critical fortunes of the adjective ‘Chabrolean’, the book also provides a survey of Chabrol’s lasting influence and legacy on the contemporary French thriller (with specific reference to Anne Fontaine and Denis Dercourt).