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Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:17 am
by domino harvey
Image

THE CLAUDE CHABROL LIST

01 Le boucher (1970) 10 (3)
02 La cérémonie (1995) 10 (2)
03 Les bonnes femmes (1961) 8 (4)
04 Le cri du hibou (1988) 7 (1)
05 Les cousins (1959) 9

06 Que la bête meure (1969) 9 (1)
07 La rupture (1970) 7
08 La femme infidèle (1968) 7
09 Les biches (1968) 8
10 Les Innocents aux mains sales (1975) 8

11 Masques (1987) 5
12 Au cœur du mensonge (1999) 6
13 L’Enfer (1994) 5
14 Juste avant la nuit (1971) 5
15 La Demoiselle d'honneur (2004) 4

16 À double tour (1959) 5
17 Nada (1974) 5
18 Rien ne va plus (1997) 4
19 La fleur du mal (2002) 5
20 Une affaire de femmes (1988) 3

21 L'Œil du Malin (1962) 4
22 Les Fantômes du chapelier (1982) 2
23 Le fauteuil hanté (2010) 4
24 Le Tigre aime la chair fraîche (1964) 2
25 Les godelureaux (1961) 3
25 La parure (2007) 2


ALSO RANS
Les noces rouges, La décade prodigieuse, La ligne de démarcation, Ophelia

ORPHANS
Alice ou la dernière fugue, Betty, Dr M, L’ivresse du pouvoir, L’Œil de Vichy, La muette, Landru, Le beau Serge, Le petit fût, Les dossiers secrets de l'inspecteur Lavardin: Maux croisés, Merci pour la chocolat, Poulet au vinaigre, Une partie de plaisir, Violette Nozière

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:23 am
by swo17
Nice list, and a lot of great stuff there!

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:24 am
by domino harvey
If you're wondering who stopped Le boucher's perfect run (it, like La ceremonie, appeared on all ballots but one), it was me. I didn't get to it in my revisits and didn't recall it being that great and certainly didn't expect it to top the list. The moral is, always watch and/or rewatch every movie. Fun fact: Gene Siskel named it the best film of the year

My only orphan was Maux croisés, which I fully expected

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:57 am
by therewillbeblus
Thanks domino! I didn't really expect anything outside of those in the top 5 to be there, but the rest is pretty interesting.

My top 10:

1. Les Bonnes femmes
2. Le Boucher
3. Le Cri du hibou
4. Juste avant la nuit
5. Masques
6. Les Cousins
7. La Ceremonie
8. La Rupture
9. La Demoiselle d'honneur
10. Le petit fût ORPHAN
11. Les Godelureaux
12. Les Biches
13. La parure
14. L'Enfer
15. Les Innocents aux mains sales
16. Nada
17. Le fauteuil hanté
18. La fleur du mal
19. Merci pour le chocolat ORPHAN
20. Ophelia

Very happy to see Les Godelureaux, La parure, and Le fauteuil hanté make the final list, though I'm surprised that Le fauteuil hanté made it onto four lists while Le petit vieux des Batignolles was on none, since I thought they were almost equally entertaining and at one point had the latter on mine - though it would have been an orphan regardless. I also swapped some around to give Le petit fût a bit more love, but that one was probably destined to be an orphan!

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 11:15 am
by NABOB OF NOWHERE
domino harvey wrote:
Thu Aug 01, 2019 10:24 am
If you're wondering who stopped Le boucher's perfect run (it, like La ceremonie, appeared on all ballots but one), it was me. I didn't get to it in my revisits and didn't recall it being that great and certainly didn't expect it to top the list. The moral is, always watch and/or rewatch every movie.
The inverse is of course equally valid. For the whole duration La Cérémonie topped my list until a reviewing of Le Boucher edged it out to number 2. Then the eve of posting the list I gave Cérémonie a final going over and It fell considerably in competition with other revisits. I think it was ultimately down to the banality of the bourgeois family that the glue came a bit unstuck for me. It could of course be argued that that is the point and underpins their condescension but the mix of nihilism versus banality was a tough cocktail to swallow given the competition. Le Boucher is a perfectly rendered film and is deservingly in pole position;
As for orphans - I have two moping children snivelling and tugging at my sleeve namely Betty and Violette Noziere. Unsure how Violette can be dismissed as it is in many ways the fore-runner of La Cérémonie being based on a similar 'fait divers' and boasting a barnstorming Huppert performance. Maybe the atrocious Kino version has a lot to answer for.
Re Betty, as a confirmed Simenonian I find this one of the most religiously adhered-to adaptations which actually transcends the source. It captures the savagery of the bourgeois family , the resilience of Betty to fight for her own identity despite the distress and torment heaped on her as well as the seediness and uncertainty of her new surroundings that wraps the whole situation in a fog of unease. Now all remains is to lobby Kino for a re-issue of Les Bonnes Femmes and Violette Noziere.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 11:19 am
by NABOB OF NOWHERE
My list
1. Le Boucher
2. Cri du Hibou
3. Les bonnes Femmes
4. A double tour
5. Les Fantômes du Chapelier
6. Betty
7. La Rupture
8. Violette Noziere
9. La Femme Infidèle
10. L’affaire des Femmes
11. Juste avant la nuit
12. Que la bête meure
13 . La Cérémonie
14. Les Biches
15 .Les Innocents aux mains sales
16. L’Oeil du Malin
17. Le coeur du mensonge
18. Les cousins
19. Le Fauteuil hanté
20. Ophélia

Also thanks to Domino for persevering with a nearly lost cause.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:40 pm
by domino harvey
Image

You're all welcome

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 12:54 pm
by Shrew
I'm a bit of a Chabrol dilettante, starting out this project at 10 films and ending at 19. I hadn't seen enough to feel comfortably going over 10, but if had been forced to submit more it wouldn't have been too hard. Even the least film I've seen (Poulet au viaigre) was still pretty good. (Though I do think there's good-sized gap between 6 and 7 on my list).

1) Les Bonnes Femmes
2) The Butcher
3) La Ceremonie
4) La Rupture
5) Story of Women
6) Que la bete muere
7) Les Cousins
8) La Muette (orphan)
9) A Double Tour
10) Ophelia

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Thu Aug 01, 2019 9:09 pm
by domino harvey
I just noticed that in a true testament to Chabrol's long legacy, the top five is entirely populated by films from five different decades!

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 1:04 am
by sinemadelisikiz
My list:
1. Les Bonnes Femmes (1960)
2. Le Boucher (1970)
3. L'Enfer (1994)
4. La Cérémonie (1995)
5. Les Cousins (1959)
6. Au cœur du mensonge (1999)
7. Masques (1987)
8. La Demoiselle d'honneur (2004)
9. Rien ne va plus (1997)
10. Le cri du hibou (1988)
11. Les innocents aux mains sales (1975)
12. La fleur du mal (2002)
13. Les Biches (1968)
14. L'Œil du malin (1962)
15. Nada (1974)
16. Que la bête meure (1969)
17. Les Godelureaux (1961)
18. La Rupture (1970)
19. La Femme infidèle (1968)
20. Alice ou la dernière fugue (1977) ORPHAN

Surprised that Le Boucher got the top spot! It was my #2 so I clearly agree. I get why no one else voted for Alice... it feels like Chabrol making a Rivette film. But I'll always be down for an Alice in Wonderland adaptation that embraces the illogic of the original. It's my catnip.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 1:15 am
by therewillbeblus
My list went through so many last minute alterations, Alice ou la dernière fugue could have made it. In the end, for the back half I went with the films that remained etched in my mind after letting them wear off. If I’d had time to rewatch the 30 films I was considering for the top 20 my list would likely have looked a lot different. Alice wasn’t as amazing as many think but you’re right about the Rivette comparison working in its favor and it has stayed with me for a few weeks, which counts for something.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 3:35 am
by NABOB OF NOWHERE
Intrigued to know if the absence of Violette Noziere in the lists is down to a problem of availability or indifference.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 4:06 am
by sinemadelisikiz
I can tell you for me it was availability. Violette was surprisingly elusive, couldn't even find the old Kino on 2nd hand market. This whole viewing exercise gave me a newfound appreciation for Huppert, so I was keen to see her in an early role.
BTW, you're not alone in liking Betty. I had it in contention but it fell off during the last reshuffle.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:01 am
by domino harvey
Indifference for me. It’s okay but not a film I’d ever think of again if Chabrol hadn’t directed it

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:14 am
by NABOB OF NOWHERE
domino harvey wrote:
Fri Aug 02, 2019 9:01 am
Indifference for me. It’s okay but not a film I’d ever think of again if Chabrol hadn’t directed it
you going to do a show and tell on your list too so I can have a snipe too?

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 10:47 am
by domino harvey
01 Les bonnes femmes (1961)
02 Le Cri du hibou (1988)
03 La cérémonie (1995)
04 La Demoiselle d'honneur (2004)
05 L'Œil du Malin (1962)
06 Les cousins (1958)
07 Les Fantômes du chapelier (1982)
08 Le fauteuil hanté (2010)
09 L’Enfer (1994)
10 Rien ne va plus (1997)
11 Les Innocents aux mains sales (1975)
12 Au cœur du mensonge (1999)
13 Nada (1974)
14 Le Tigre aime la chair fraîche (1964)
15 La fleur du mal (2002)
16 La ligne de démarcation (1966)
17 À double tour (1959)
18 Les dossiers secrets de l'inspecteur Lavardin: Maux croisés (1989)
19 Masques (1987)
20 Les noces rouges (1973)


I'm not wild about my own list because I only (re)watched nine of my twenty within the last few months, so I'm going off memory more than I'd like. Almost surely the reality of L'Enfer will suffer from my memory on revisit now that I've since seen Bunuel's riotous masterpiece of jealousy, El, which Chabrol himself loved. Bunuel's film so brilliantly renders impotent every movie like this by pointing out the self-furthering masochism of participants in melodramatic hysteria, and hilariously so, though I suspect Chabrol's take on this material is probably also funnier than I remember...

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:13 am
by NABOB OF NOWHERE
Apart from the aforementioned demotion of La Cérémonie after a rewatch L'Enfer suffered obliteration from the running. I just ended up feeling that it was a wrong move to tread in the footsteps ,or rather skid marks, of Clouzot. Very glad to see Le Chapelier and L'oeil de Malin in your upper reaches and expected to see A double tour a bit higher up. As you might expect I am overjoyed to see Les Noces Rouges get the wooden spoon.
I also wish I had been brave enough to promote Un fauteuil hanté further up the running.
But where the fuck is Le Boucher?

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 11:55 am
by therewillbeblus
I felt strange about my list too, but Chabrol has such an extensive filmography that I had to get a jump start on this project the month before it began and still found it difficult to set aside time for revisits and exploration of unseen films. I didn't get around to some works that may have made my list, including a forum favorite Les Fantômes du chapelier, which generated some pretty great discussion here. Au cœur du mensonge, Que la bête meure, and L'Œil du Malin all had spots before the final day, and L’Enfer and La cérémonie were impulsively knocked down several spots each when tallying what I was most passionate about in the given moment. On the final day, I seemed to prioritize his audaciously singular works like Les Godelureaux and Le petit fût, which moved up the ranks considerably as they lingered in my memory, but if I had time to rewatch everything again the list would probably look very different. Oh well, and so it goes, at least we have the decades projects which will soon catch up with Chabrol, and hopefully this list project will catapult his films to ascend ranks in those lists this time around!

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2019 3:50 pm
by colinr0380
domino harvey wrote:
Thu Aug 01, 2019 9:09 pm
I just noticed that in a true testament to Chabrol's long legacy, the top five is entirely populated by films from five different decades!
And he was no slouch in the next decade either!

My orphan was Dr M, though that was pretty much expected (I remember this was one of the key films to create the pejorative slightly anti-EU funding term from some UK critics of being a "Euro-pudding", as in a mish mash of funds creating a 'stateless' film with actors performing a bit stiltedly in English as their second langauage apart from an imported US star or two. Arguably a really early example of a similar film in that trend would be Fahrenheit 451. Later on that "Euro-pudding" term became a translated title of a Cédric Klapisch film! Though that eventually the 'Euro-pudding' sense of Dr M becomes kind of the primary point of the film itself in some ways, and it is a neat companion to Chabrol's late 70s foray into French-Canadian territory with Blood Relatives), and I sadly did not have much of a chance to explore titles other than those I went through in that big Pathfinder DVD box a while back, so I limited myself just to the ten films I felt most confident about.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Mon Aug 05, 2019 8:35 am
by Mr Sausage
The winner, Le Boucher, is our discussion topic over at the film club. Come over and share your thoughts.

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:57 pm
by domino harvey
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the wine cellar... an Isabelle Huppert-starring TV work, Monsieur Saint-Saëns, has been newly English-subbed on back channels

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:06 pm
by therewillbeblus
domino harvey wrote:
Sun Jan 12, 2020 7:57 pm
Just when you thought it was safe to go back into the wine cellar... an Isabelle Huppert-starring TV work, Monsieur Saint-Saëns, has been newly English-subbed on back channels
I tried watching my copy earlier but it doesn’t work in VLC and the recommended video program is PC-only, any luck with Mac-friendly media players?

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:15 pm
by domino harvey
You could make an MKV from the DVD-R using HandBrake-- I'll prob be doing so whenever I get around to seeing this if someone on back channels doesn't beat me to upping a rip first

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Sun Jan 12, 2020 8:20 pm
by therewillbeblus
Thanks for the tip!

Re: Auteur List: Claude Chabrol - Discussion and Defenses

Posted: Mon Jan 13, 2020 3:14 am
by NABOB OF NOWHERE
Apparently he did Liszt and Prokofiev for the same series