Claude Chabrol - 1968-1978: "Golden Era" Films

1968-1978: "Golden Era" Films

In 1968 Chabrol began working with film producer André Génovés and started to make more critically acclaimed films that would later be considered his "Golden Era". Most of these films revolved around themes of bougeois characters and a murder is almost always part of the plot. Unlike his earlier films, most of these films centered around middle aged people. Chabrol often worked with the same people during this period including actors Audran and Michel Bouquet, cinematographer Jean Rabier, editor Jacques Gaillard, sound technician Guy Chichignoud, composer Pierre Jansenn, set designer Guy Littaye, as well as producer Génovés and co-writer Paul Gegauff.

In 1968 Chabrol made one of his most critically acclaimed films Les Biches. The film stars Stéphane Audran as the dominant and bisexual Frédérique, who finds a young protege in the bisexual Why (Jacqueline Sassard), until they both become the lover of a young architect named Paul (Jean-Louis Trintignant). Why ends up killing Frédérique, however it is unclear whether she murdered her cheating lover or the person that her lover was cheating with. The film received critical praise and was a box office hit. Chabrol followed this with a similar film The Unfaithful Wife (La Femme infidèle), in which a husband named Charles murders the lover of his cheating wife. It was later remade in 2002 by director Adrian Lyne. Chabrol finished the decade with This Man Must Die (Que la bête meure) in 1969. Based on an original story by Cecil Day-Lewis, in the film Charles (Michel Duchaussoy) plots to kill Paul (Jean Yanne) after Paul killed Charles' son in a hit and run car accident. However the films ending is left intentionally ambiguous, and Chabrol has stated that "you'll never see a Charles kill a Paul. Never." the film was especially praised for its landscape cinematography.

In 1970 Chabrol made The Butcher (Le boucher) starring Jean Yanne and Stéphane Audran. Yanne plays Popaul, a former war hero known for his violent bahavior, much like that depictedin the prehistoric cave drawings that the characters look at in their Périgond community. The French newspaper Le Figaro called it "the best french film since the liberation." After another examination of bougeois life in The Breach (La Rupture) in 1970, Chabrol made Just Before Nightfall (Juste avant la nuit) in 1971. The film stars Michel Bouquet as an ad executive named Charles who kills his mistress but cannot handle the guilt, so he confesses his crime to her husband (François Périer) and his wife (Stéphane Audran), expecting their condemnation. To his surprise they are only commpassionate and forgiving to his crime and Charles cannot find relief from the guilt of what he has done. Later in 1971 Chabrol made Ten Days' Wonder (La Décade prodigieuse), based on a novel by Ellery Queen. The film was shot in English and starred Michel Piccoli, Anthony Perkins and Orson Welles. It received poor critical reviews. He followed this with the equally disliked Dr. Popaul, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Mia Farrow. Critics compared the film unfavorably with Chabrol's earlier film that cantered on a "Landru-like" theme. Critic Jacques Siclier said that "the novelty of Docteur Popaul comes from the offhandedness with which the criminal history is treated."

Chabrol took a slight change of pace with his 1973 film Wedding in Blood (Les Noces rouges) by making his first film with political themes. the film stars Audran and Michel Piccoli as lovers who plot to murder Audran's husband, who is the corrupt gaullist mayor of their town. To their surprise the President of France orders that no investigation be made of the mayor's death, leading the murdering couple to suspect political interest in their crime. In the spring of 1973 the French government banned the film for one month, allegedly so that it would not influence members of the jury of a controversial criminal trial. Chabrol followed this political theme with Nada, in which a group of young anarchists kidnap an American ambassador. It was Chabrol's first film to not center on the bourgeois since Le Beau Serge. Chabrol returned to more famailar ground in 1975 with A piece of pleasure (Une partie de plaisir). In this film screenwriter Paul Gégauff plays a writer with a troubled marriage that ends in tragedy. (In 1983, Gégauff was stabbed to death in real life by his second wife.) Gégauff's wife is played by his real-life first wife Danièle Gégauff (already divorced when this film was made) and his daughter is played by real life daughter Clemence Gégauff. the film received poor critical reviews, with Richard Roud calling it "rather interestingly loathsome."

Chabrol ended his Golden Period with one of his most admired and his most controversial films Violette Nozière in 1978. The film starred a young Isabelle Huppert as a real life Parisian girl from a respectable bougeois family in the 1930s. At night Violette sneaks out to pick up men and eventually contracts spilis, which she convinces her parents must be hereditary before she kills them. The film was controversial in France but praised in other countries.