Claude Chabrol (1930-)

Part of the New Wave

Le Beau Serge 1958, Les Cousins 1959

Became famous for thrillers Explores the dark side of human nature

Friendship and collaboration with Paul Ggauff (1922-1983)

Dialogues of Les Cousins, Les Bonnes Femmes

Dialogue and screenplay of Que la bte meure 1969

Chabrol as auteur
Rejects auteur cinema Not overly intellectual Yet

Wants to give a very personal vision Indulges in auteurist gestures

The Lelivres watch Les Noces rouges (Chabrol, 1972)

Works with favorite actresses

Stphane Audran

Literary quotation

Favorite actresses
Isabelle Huppert

Literary allusions
Epigraph

On ne peut tre juste que si on est humain

Vauvenargues

Jeanne borrows

Voyage au bout de la nuit

Louis-Ferdinand Cline

At party

Il y a chez les gens de bien qui me rpugne, cest tout le mal qui est en eux Nietzsche

Established Genres
Melodramas La Rupture War films Une affaire de femmes Literary adaptations
Madame Bovary

Crime thrillers
Le Boucher Les Noces rouges

Crime thrillers
Based on novels

Ruth Rendell
Famous English writer La Crmonie The Bridesmaid/La Demoiselle dhonneur 2004

Based on fait divers

Adaptation of true stories

Interest in fait divers

Subject conducive to

Analysis of French society Period pieces

Seen as examples of disruption of the norm

Films based on faits divers

Landru
1963
XIXth c serial killer 1921 trial on 11 counts of murder

Violette Nozire 1978

1934 trial 14 year old girl poisoned her parents

Une affaire de femmes 1989

Story of Marie-Louise Giraud (1903-1943) Executed under the Vichy Rgime for performing

abortions

La Crmonie 1995
Chabrols 49th film

Confirmed his rehabilitation

A crime thriller Based

On a Ruth Rendell novel

Judgement in Stone 1997

On a fait divers

Judgment in Stone 1977

Famous for opening sentence

Eunice Parchman killed the Coverdale family because she could not read or write

Yet suspense Analysis of British society of the 1970s

Religious fanaticism

Two social misfits become murderers

Adaptation
Unattractive badly dressed women

Sophie sometimes very attractive

British society Transposition to French society Incorporation of fait divers 1933 Papin affair in Le Mans in western
France

Papin affair
Two sisters, Christine and La Papin

Housemaids Murdered their employer

Madame Lancelin, and her daughter Genevive

Two interpretations

Surrealists: political motivation Psychiatrists: fusion of identities into a murderous third person

Theater and screen versions of the Papin case

Les Bonnes (1947)
Play by Jean Genet Sister My Sister (UK, 1994) Film by Nancy Meckler

Les Blessures assassines/Murderous Maids

(France, 2000) Film by Jean-Pierre Denis

The Province: Brittany

How do we know?

Coast Architecture Wall in Saint-Malo Newspaper: Ouest-France Motif on tins

Quimper faience

The Province
Isolation Boredom Close-mindedness

Gossip
TGV

Changes

Breton coast

Faence de Quimper

Brittany
Saint-Coulomb near Saint-Malo

Ille-et-Vilaine (35) The post-office Cobbled streets The train station

Saint-Malo, a walled-in city

Physical isolation
Brittany Malouinire

Becomes an isolated Gothic house Sophies room: alone at the top

Chambre de bonne

Provincial French society

The bourgeoisie

The Lelivre family Money: factory, art gallery

The working class

Sophie: the housemaid Jeanne: the postmistress

cf Ins in Huis-Clos by Jean-Paul Sartre

The bourgeoisie
The moneyed class Political power after 1789 Arrogance Elaborate code of decorum

Love of entertaining

Self-righteousness

Madame Lelivre

Sophie at her place

Sophie at an unexpected place

Space and class structure

Enforcement of separation

Different stairs Different domains Living quarters: chambre de bonne

Contrast bourgeoisie/working class

Economic factors

Wealth vs semi-poverty
Living quarters Cars

Deux Chevaux: the cheapest French car Mme Lelivres designer clothes

Clothes

Contrasts
Family

Closeness of bourgeois family

Extended family, concerned father

Absence of working-class family

Isolation of Sophie and Jeanne

Love
Melindas boyfriend nice and understanding Jeanne and Sophies irresponsible boyfriends Melinda and Sophie born on the same day

Two different cultures

Television

The Lelivres
Opera: Mozarts Don Giovanni

Libretto: French/Italian

Sophie and Jeanne

Cartoons, popular shows

Sophie: the maid

La bonne
Bonne--tout-faire Bonniche, boniche: derogatory Gouvernante: housekeeper

Infantilized
Les Malheurs de Sophie (1864)

La Comtesse de Sgur

Culture clash
Melinda-Sophie
- Sophie means wisdom in Greek - Jai du travail, moi

Jeanne
They pretend to be nice but what can they

understand? They have everything. I would have been happy with one tenth of what they have

Bourgeois impositions
Lack of awareness

Harsh expectations: working hours

Code

Efforts in frame of master-servant relations

Melinda sympathetic, yet orders Sophie about Patronizing

Sophie: a misfit
Illiterate

Powerless Ashamed Has no opinion

A social misfit

Je sais pas

Polite but cool and distant

Social isolation
A servant

Chambre de bonne
Cut off from the world around her When threatened , retreats to her room

Illiterate

Sophies illiteracy
Melinda names the problem

Analphabtisme: Illiteracy Analphabte: Illiterate Transgression Blackmail Cest vous la salope, pas moi, You are a slut

Sophies violent reaction

Jeanne: the post mistress

Rough mannered

Chewing gum Abrasive Opens mail Comes in through the window

Nosy

Sophie and Jeanne

Similar pasts Similar interests: TV, films

Regression to childhood Lack of opportunities

Similar circumstances

Jeannes influence
More aggressive Puts into words what Sophie feels

Bitterness Anger I am not going to obey them

Goads Sophie onto rebellion

Sophie and Jeanne

Explosion of violence Destruction of clothes Pouring of chocolate on the bed

Sexual connotation
Identical gestures

Become one murderous third person

Fusion of identity
Lack of emotion

Jeanne jokes after the first murder

En voil un qui naura plus mal au dents

You know what to do

Sophie cleans up methodically

Lack of moral conscience

They will be unable to prove anything

Sophie vs Jeanne
She has killed before She initiates the murders She is stronger

Silent Keeps secrets

She survives

A couple?
Affection grows between them
Use of tu

Hugs and kisses

Watching TV After the murders, Jeanne strokes Sophies cheek Say a final good-bye

Incestuous relationship of the Papin sisters

Space and class structure

Use of the main stairway

Sophie is fired Sophie and Jeanne climb it to the master bedroom to tear up clothes

Sophie and Jeanne enter the drawingroom to kill the family

Marxist analysis
Family killed

Not because of their personalities Because of their class

Film seen as an illustration of class war

Title
La Crmonie

Euphemism for execution

Sophie and Jeannes judgment

The Lelivres are guilty They deserve to be executed

Implies that the murder is planned as an execution

Ambiguous ending
Will Sophie be caught by the police? Tape: On a bien fait?, Did we do the right thing? Difficulty of making a moral judgment Lack of closure

Tape playing after the credits