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
