Bluebeard
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In Claude Chabrol’s Bluebeard, we are confronted with one of the most constant philosophical-existential themes in the great French director’s filmography: the fog and opacity that cloak the human impulse towards violence and evil. The eponymous hero, a bourgeois dandy, repulsive yet charming at the same time, repeatedly puts into practice an evil plan to ensure a comfortable life: he seduces and murders middle-aged women after persuading them to give him access to their bank savings. Deliberately leaving the crimes out of frame and placing detailed emphasis on the painstaking preparations, shockingly stripped of all emotion, Chabrol weaves a chilling parable about the slaughterhouse of the World War I, patriarchal authority, and the generalized greed of a society of self-isolation and self-interest. At the same time, he builds an unconscious bridge between the two main periods of his work, providing a smooth transition from the New Wave to the era of psychological thrillers.
Screenings
Thursday 31.10.2024
Makedonikon
Cast and crew
Claude Chabrol
Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (nouvelle vague), a movement that gained prominence in the late 1950s. He was a critic for the influential film magazine Cahiers du Cinéma before beginning his career as a filmmaker. Thrillers became something of a trademark for Chabrol, with an approach characterized by a distanced objectivity. His first feature film, Le Beau Serge, is regarded as a seminal work in the New Wave cinema movement. Simple and direct in its account of youthful lives unfolding against a rugged landscape and featuring unknown actors, the film’s mastery of story and image is typical of Chabrol. In 1968, Chabrol began working with film producer André Génovès and started to make more critically acclaimed films that would later be considered his "Golden Era". Most of these films revolved around themes of bourgeois characters and a murder is almost always part of the plot. Chabrol continued directing films and TV series well into the 2000s.
1959 The Cousins
1963 Bluebeard
1967 The Champagne Murders
1970 The Butcher
1973 Wedding in Blood
1978 Violette
1988 Story of Women
1992 Betty
1995 La Cérémonie
2003 The Flower of Evil
2009 Inspector Bellamy
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