Can We Talk About Claude Chabrol?

I was gonna say Masques is too long but it's only 100 minutes. oh my...

how encouraging!

lol is it on the criterion channel? they need to put up La Rupture and La Ceremonie, ya know, his GOOD movies...

I'm receiving La Ceremonie, which I haven't watched since 1997, from the library tomorrow.

I saw masques recently and thought it was one of his better films (that don't feature huppert) no ceremonie on obviously but he's done much much worse

He has, like the two films he made just before Masques: Chicken with Vinegar and Inspector Lavardin. both perfect examples of Chabrol at his plodding worst, uninteresting visually, too many characters, and just inert for long stretches. Inspector Lavardin is a notch better than Chicken with Vinegar; despite Jean Rabier shooting both, Inspector Lavardin actually has some interesting camera work and inserts that elevate the typically dull proceedings. Better cast, too (Jean-Claude Brialy, Bernadette Lafont, Jean Poiret as IL). Although Chicken with Vinegar does have Stephane Audran and Michel Boquet, but they are woefully underused. Inspector Lavardin doesn't even show up in CWV until 45 minutes or so. The second film is just tighter, and it reminded me of Chabrol's second to last film, A Girl Cut in Two, and parts of it clearly presage Masques, which, again, is a much better film.

I look forward to being able to go through Chabrol's films again, I've seen 35 in the last year and the most acclaimed stretch, 68-72, is mostly a blur since I started with it.

Rewatched L’enfer tonight for the umpteenth time. Fantastic editing. It is a great horror film.

The little homage to Buñuel’s “El” - Paul’s wobbly walk as his insanity goes full on - is a wonderful touch I’d never noticed before.

Yes. You guys should watch the doc about the unfinished original.

Have seen it. It’s great but I really love Chabrol’s approach to that material. He supposedly truly disliked what he’d seen of Clouzot’s preproduction experiments.

Right. The Clouzot stuff is best seen at one step removed, through the doc.

L'Enfer is horrifying. the English title, TORMENT, isn't nearly as good as its literal translation, Hell

I mean this in a good way of course.