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By DAVE KEHR
Published: September 12, 2010
Claude Chabrol, the director and critic who helped give rise to the French New Wave and who went on to make a series of stylish, suspense-filled films like “Le Boucher” (“The Butcher”) and “La Femme Infidèle” (“The Unfaithful Wife”) that were often compared to those of Alfred Hitchcock, died Sunday in Paris. He was 80.
The death was announced by Christophe Girard, the chief cultural affairs official in Paris and confirmed by his press agent, Eva Simonet, who said he had been hospitalized for “severe anemia.” President Nicolas Sarkozy of France said on television that Mr. Chabrol “took the finesse of his social depictions from Balzac” and “his humor and vividness he got from Rabelais.”
Mr. Sarkozy added, “But he was most of all himself in his films, as in life, and I’m certain that everyone will miss him.”
Mr. Chabrol was a young film critic working for the magazine Les Cahiers du Cinema alongside François Truffaut, Jacques Rivette, Eric Rohmer and Jean-Luc Godard when a family inheritance allowed him to form his own production company. In 1956, he produced and wrote the screenplay for the short film “Le Coup de Berger,” which was directed by Mr. Rivette, then used his own money to finance “Le Beau Serge” (1957).
The rest is here: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/13/movies/13chabrol.html I've been watching Claude Chabrol films my entire life.
How sad there won't be a new Chabrol film every year.
The French don't throw their artists under the bus when they get old, and Chabrol made some of his deepest, richest, most resonant noirs in the last few years. He was a refined and sophisticated storyteller who respected the intelligence of his audience. His thrillers are emotionally gripping. I learned so much about writing and directing from studying his films.
Rest in peace, Claude Chabrol.
Richard