What's in a Title? The films of Claude Chabrol Quiz

Answer: Le Beau Serge

François left the village to study in Paris 12 years previously and comes back to convalesce after an illness. Serge is seemingly unhappily married to Yvonne who is pregnant with their second child (the first one died), and when François tries to help him in Christ-like martyr fashion, it's seemingly a losing battle.

Although "Le Beau Serge" was Chabrol's debut, he was well-versed in filmmaking since he'd been part of the legendary "Cahiers du Cinema" magazine/group which included fellow New Wavers-to-be Éric Rohmer, Jacques Rivette and François Truffaut. Chabrol was also very fortunate that his wife at the time, Agnès Goute, had just inherited a large sum of money and was excited at the idea of letting him make a film with it, a luxury very few wannabe directors enjoy. The film is often cited as the film which ushered in the aforementioned New Wave.

"Le Beau Serge" contains some significant autobiographical details: the village where it was filmed (Sardent) was where Chabrol had been sent from Paris during World War II, so François's nostalgic homecoming must have struck a chord with Chabrol. Even more personal for Chabrol is Serge and Yvonne's first child who had died in infanthood: the same had happened to the Chabrols.

Chabrol's feelings towards "Le Beau Serge" seem to have run hot and cold; "I like it better than I did. At one stage I hated it. I wasn't ashamed of it but I wasn't proud either. It has a demonstrative element that I find ridiculous. I found it rather clumsy. I made it when I was 27 years old... I'm less critical of the awkwardness now. There are things in it that work."

All the red herrings came out in 1958: "In Case of Adversity" is a French film directed by Claude Autant-Lara, the "Cahiers du Cinema" crowd's arch-enemy; "The Young Lions" is a war film starring Marlon Brando; and "Mon Oncle" is a comedy directed by Jacques Tati.

Answer: The Cousins

Apparently, Chabrol wanted "The Cousins/Les Cousins", which is loosely based on Jean de la Fontaine's 1668 poem "Le Rat de Ville et le Rat des Champs" ("The Town Rat and the Country Rat"), as his debut feature film, but it was too expensive to make.

The two cousins were played by the male leads from Chabrol's debut; Gérard Blain, who had played Serge, was now country-bumpkin Charles, and Jean-Claude Brialy was flamboyant and increasingly annoying cousin Paul.

Once again there was an element of autobiography as Chabrol had spent a short time studying law at the same law school that features in the film, and he used to hang out in the same Law Students Association club seen in the film. He wasn't particularly complimentary about the people he'd met there, and although to most viewers the characters get more and more obnoxious as the film goes on, Chabrol was accused of being "indulgent towards young nationalists and fascists". Apparently Chabrol laughed and said, "Compassionate? You must be joking."

All the red herrings came out in 1959: "The Indian Tomb" was directed by Fritz Lang, "Attack of the Giant Leeches" is a self-explanatory sci-fi B movie, and "The Sound and the Fury" is an adaptation of the much-lauded Faulkner novel.

Answer: The Does

"The Does/Les Biches" was Chabrol's fifteenth feature film but he is quoted as saying it was "the first film I made exactly as I wished", and it was the first of a slew of top quality films which did something to revive the somewhat tarnished reputation Chabrol had gained in the 1960s, although many French cinema snobs never forgave Chabrol for what they perceived as his mercenary attitude to working as a director. Although they had a point regarding some of the prize turkeys he directed, they didn't seem able to recognize when he was making great cinema.

The French title, "Les Biches", translates as both "the does" (as in female deer) and a slang term for "the girls". There are obvious allusions to lesbian vampire narratives, from the exotic setting, the aristocratic predator, and even Frédérique's attire (black boots, long black coat, black hat), to Why's pecuniary dependence on Frédérique versus Frédérique feeding off Why's youthful beauty.

The film has been read as a critique of revolutionary politics and seen as displaying Chabrol's political pessimism. Why (the proletariat) becomes the new Frédérique (the ruling class) but she is nothing but a cheap copy, an imitation and nothing revolutionary at all. The character Riais (played by Chabrol regular Dominique Zardi), who lives at the villa, quotes Marxist texts and claims to be a revolutionary, but he is really nothing but a hanger-on who demands money when he's chucked out of the villa.

All the red herrings came out in 1968: "Barbarella" is a fantastic French science fiction film starring Jane Fonda, "The Odd Couple" is an American comedy, and "Rosemary's Baby" is an unsettling horror film which was directed by Roman Polanski.

Answer: The Unfaithful Wife

"The Unfaithful Wife/La Femme Infidèle" is the first in Chabrol's so-called "Hélène Cycle", i.e. films with lead characters called Hélène and often either a Charles or a Paul, sometimes both. Hélène is often, as in this case, portrayed by Stéphane Audran, who was married to Chabrol from 1964 to 1980. There is no Paul in "The Unfaithful Wife", but there is exciting, enigmatic playboy Victor to contrast the predictable, conservative Charles. However, it's Mr Boring (Charles) who kills off his rival, and, most interestingly, in the process regains the affections of his wife who finally realizes he does really love her.

I think "The Unfaithful Wife" sees Chabrol really hitting his stride and it's a perfect example of what he's so good at, which is a Hitchcockian cocktail of a taut thriller, black comedy, and fantastic technique. This film sees at least two direct homages to Hitchcock: the how-to-get-rid-of-a-body scenario, and the final shot where the camera tracks back as it zooms in, which Chabrol called "a shot which contradicts itself!" The latter wasn't used as mere trickery; it leaves a sense of ambiguity since we suppose it reveals Charles' unity with his family, but might also hint that he's being taken away by the police.

"The Unfaithful Wife" was also Michel Bouquet's first, but certainly not his last, top-notch performance for Chabrol. He plays Charles in this film.

All the red herrings came out in 1969: "Bullitt" is a high-octane thriller starring Steve McQueen, "The Man Who Lies" is a French-Czech drama directed by Alain Robbe-Grillet, and "if...." is a scathing satire directed by Lindsay Anderson.

Answer: This Man Must Die

The story of "This Man Must Die/Que la Bête Meure" is partly told through a diary Charles keeps. He eventually tracks down the killer (Paul Decourt) through the woman who was with him at the time of the accident. Paul is so vile the viewer thinks "come on Claude, nobody's that nasty", but Chabrol is one step ahead and the next entry in Charles's diary is: "An abominable creature; a caricature of the wholly bad man such as one never imagines meeting in reality."

"This Man Must Die" carries on the Chabrolian tradition of having two male characters who are poles apart, and often calling the sensible, traditional one Charles and the erratic, overbearing one Paul. These two characters are said to be jovial parodies of Chabrol (Charles) and his good friend and collaborator Paul Gégauff. In "This Man Must Die", Chabrol playfully gives his screenwriter/actor/novelist pal a further mention in a scene when Paul's long-suffering wife is asking Charles about his views on the Nouveau Roman: "Some people find it boring but I think it's an interesting attempt to renew old forms, to reconcile time and space. Sarraute, Butor, Robbe-Grillet, even Gégauff like it or not, are pretty extreme." Then Paul comes home and brutally humiliates his wife by mockingly reading one of her poems out loud. However, the only one laughing is Paul's nasty old mother, and she's the only one who mourns him later too.

All the red herrings came out in 1969: "True Grit" is a western starring John Wayne, "Z" is a French political thriller directed by Costa-Gavras, and "Goodbye, Columbus" is based on the eponymous novel by Philip Roth.

Answer: The Butcher

What amazes me about "The Butcher/Le Boucher" is how Chabrol builds up the tension and keeps us enthralled even though the title seems to tell us who the killer is before we've even started, or is it a double-bluff? In fact, "The Butcher" is anything but a whodunit, and Chabrol weaves an intricate web of conflicting and ever-changing personality traits of the two central characters (Hélène is played by Stéphane Audran, and Popaul by Jean Yanne). We are almost made to feel sorry for poor old lovesick Popaul, who has experienced nothing but a boorish father, a downtrodden mother, and rivers of blood both at war (Algeria and Indochina) and at work (he is the butcher). Hélène turns him into a schoolboy again rather than a full-bloodied male, and it's not until the end that she (and we) realize that she has made a big mistake.

"The Butcher" was very successful at the time of its release and it remains one of Chabrol's best-known and best-liked films. Apart from the well-crafted tension that builds up thanks to the plot, the film is technically brilliant. There's a Charles in this film too; one of Hélène's pupils who gets special treatment from both her and Popaul.

All the red herrings came out in 1970: "The Confession" was directed by Costa Gavras and stars Yves Montand, "Love Story" was the biggest-grossing film in 1970, and "Trog" is a science fiction/horror film starring Joan Crawford in her last feature film.

Answer: The Breach

"The Breach/La Rupture" starts off with a startling scene in which drug-addled Charles attacks his wife (Hélène), and then throws their son (Michel) across the room, the shock of which prompts Hélène to attack him with a frying pan. Although Charles is a pivotal character in "The Breach", he is oddly absent from the screen, only really figuring at the beginning and the end, which is equally as dramatic.

Chabrol went the whole hog on "The Breach" and the array of secondary characters (a mentally handicapped minor, an alcoholic, three old spinsters, a thespian actor) add perfectly to the melodrama. It also features Chabrol's most extreme versions of the Charles/Paul characters. In this case Charles is a rather pathetic addict who seems oblivious to his surroundings and what goes on, while Paul, despite being equally pathetic, is also a desperate, amoral and ruthless opportunist. The result is a wonderful slice of thriller-cum-black comedy which Chabrol skillfully steers just clear of disaster.

All the red herrings came out in 1970: "Five Easy Pieces" stars Jack Nicholson, "The Wild Child" was directed by François Truffaut, and "Carry On Loving" is the twentieth in the British "Carry On" film series.

Answer: Just Before Nightfall

"Just Before Nightfall/Juste Avant la Nuit" rounds off Chabrol's Hélène cycle neatly with the Charles character (played by Chabrol regular Michel Bouquet) at its most complex. As critic Guy Austin put it: "Charles Masson imperils his marriage not by having an affair with Laura or even by killing her, but by feeling guilty about it." It's quite unusual in cinema for a character to confess to such a crime and be greeted with bourgeois tight-lipped pragmatism. In the case of Charles telling the widowed husband François, who is scared of people finding out that he and his wife's marriage was platonic, François is taciturn, leading Charles to cry out, "I can't bear not being judged. I want you to tell me what to do." François just says, "I don't know," and when Charles talks about giving himself up, François says, "Think of Hélène and the kids. I believe it's best to try to forget. This story must be buried. You must bury it, no matter how."

All the red herrings came out in 1971: "The French Connection" is a thriller directed by William Friedkin, starring Gene Hackman and Roy Scheider; "Bedknobs and Broomsticks" is a musical for kids; and "Nights of a Dreamer" was directed by Robert Bresson.

Answer: Pleasure Party

The French title, "Une Partie de Plaisir", like many of Chabrol's film titles, works as a play on words in French but not in English; "partie" might be translated as either "slice/piece/a bit" or "party".

After years of parodying Paul Gégauff in his scripts, Chabrol finally cast him (as Philippe) in what turned out to be a disturbing drama that was all a bit too close to the bone to make it wholly entertaining in the traditional sense. A dark streak had Chabrol also cast Gégauff's ex-wife (Danièle Gégauff) as his fictional one (Esther), Gégauff's daughter (Clemence Gégauff) as his fictional daughter (Elsie), an innocent victim stuck in the middle of a collapsing marriage, and set it all in Gégauff's own house.

In "Pleasure Party", Philippe is an insufferable intellectual bully who gets nasty when things don't go his way, and/or he feels humiliated. Apparently, the fiction wasn't without a grain of truth in the real-life relationship and some of the scenes between Paul and Danièle Gégauff are rather disturbing.

Paul Gégauff faded into the background of Chabrol's career after this somewhat exhibitionist grand finale, and nurtured a hefty drink problem. He was apparently hoping to come back into the picture in 1983 but his desire was cut short when he was stabbed to death in December of that year. The murderess was his young Norwegian wife.

All the red herrings came out in 1975: "Dog Day Afternoon" stars Al Pacino, "Love and Death" is a Woody Allen comedy, and "The Ghoul" is a horror film starring Peter Cushing.

Answer: Innocents with Dirty Hands

Rod Steiger's performance as the aging, drunk, impotent husband is a tad over the top, but then again the plot is so far-fetched and twisted (both contorted and kinky) that it just about works. "Innocents with Dirty Hands" has all the trade mark motifs of film noir (femme fatale, murder-gone-askew, deceptively dumb-seeming cops, broken relationships, alcohol abuse) as well as its pessimism, but all overdone almost to the point of ridiculousness. The plot is genuinely gripping however, and the outcome is by no means predictable.

Chabrol once more went to town blending technique and storyline, this time with an unusual camera angle (another film noir trick) when Julie and Jeff first make love which later turns out to be from husband Louis's point of view as he secretly peeps on them. In typically warped Chabrolian style, it is this voyeurism that cures Louis of his impotence. The fact that newly-virile Louis has also gone on the wagon is conveniently overlooked.

"Innocents with Dirty Hands" marked the end of a 13-year collaboration between Les Films La Boètie and Claude Chabrol, and arguably marks the end of his "golden age" (1967 - 1975). It was by no means the end of Chabrol as a prolific, popular and critically acclaimed director, and he went on to direct a further 28 feature films. Claude Chabrol died in 2010, aged 80.

All the red herrings came out in 1975: "The Man Who Would Be King" was directed by John Huston and stars Sean Connery and Michael Caine; "Three Days of the Condor" is a political thriller directed by Sydney Pollack and starring Robert Redford, Faye Dunaway, and Max von Sydow; and "The Spiral Staircase" is a remake of the brilliant 1945 thriller.