Claude Henri Jean Chabrol was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s.
42 Facts About Claude Chabrol
2.
Claude Chabrol's career began with Le Beau Serge, inspired by Hitchcock's Shadow of a Doubt.
3.
Sometimes characterized as a "mainstream" New Wave director, Claude Chabrol remained prolific and popular throughout his half-century career.
4.
Claude Chabrol said that he always thought of himself as a country person, and never as a Parisian.
5.
Claude Chabrol has said that while in the army he worked as a film projectionist.
6.
In 1955 Claude Chabrol was briefly employed as a publicity man at the French offices of 20th Century Fox, but was told that he was "the worst press officer they'd ever seen" and was replaced by Jean-Luc Godard, who they said was even worse.
7.
Unlike all of his future New Wave contemporaries, Claude Chabrol never made short film nor did he work as an assistant on other directors' work before making his feature film debut.
8.
Claude Chabrol had said that Rohmer deserves the majority of the credit for the book, while he mainly worked on the sections pertaining to Hitchcock's early American films, Rebecca, Notorious, and Stage Fright.
9.
Claude Chabrol had interviewed Hitchcock with Francois Truffaut in 1954 on the set of To Catch a Thief, where the two famously walked into a water tank after being starstruck by Hitchcock.
10.
The most prolific of the major New Wave directors, Claude Chabrol averaged almost one film a year from 1958 until his death.
11.
Claude Chabrol had married Agnes Goute in 1952 and in 1957 his wife inherited a large sum of money from relatives.
12.
Claude Chabrol spent three months shooting in his hometown of Sardent using a small crew and little known actors.
13.
Claude Chabrol was the first of his friends to complete a feature film, and it immediately received critical praise and was a box office success.
14.
Critics noticed similarities to Hitchcock's films, such as the motifs of doubling and re-occurrences and the "Catholic guilt transference" that Claude Chabrol had written about extensively in his and Rohmer's book the year earlier.
15.
Claude Chabrol stated that he made the film as a "farewell to Catholicism", and many critics have called his first film vastly different from any of his subsequent films.
16.
Claude Chabrol quickly followed this success up with Les Cousins in 1958.
17.
Claude Chabrol can make a character look absolutely ridiculous and hateful in two seconds flat.
18.
Claude Chabrol formed his own production company AJYM Productions at the time of making Le Beau Serge.
19.
Claude Chabrol donated excess film stock from Les Cousins to Rivette to complete Paris nous appartient.
20.
Claude Chabrol was a technical advisor on Jean-Luc Godard's feature debut Breathless and acted in small parts in many of his friends' and his own early films.
21.
In 1960 Claude Chabrol made what is considered by many critics as his best early film, Les Bonnes Femmes.
22.
In 1962 Claude Chabrol made Ophelia, a loose adaptation of Hamlet that was another box office disappointment.
23.
From 1964 to 1967 Claude Chabrol made six films and one short that were critically and commercially disastrous, and this period is considered a low point of his career.
24.
Claude Chabrol co-starred with Stephane Audran as a middle aged couple dealing with their rebellious teenage daughter.
25.
In 1964 Claude Chabrol directed a stage production of MacBeth for the Theatre Recamier.
26.
In 1968 Claude Chabrol began working with film producer Andre Genoves and started to make more critically acclaimed films that would later be considered his "Golden Era".
27.
Claude Chabrol often worked with the same people during this period including actors Audran and Michel Bouquet, cinematographer Jean Rabier, editor Jacques Gaillard, sound technician Guy Chichignoud, composer Pierre Jansen, set designer Guy Littaye, as well as producer Genoves and co-writer Paul Gegauff.
28.
In 1968 Claude Chabrol made Les Biches, one of his most acclaimed works.
29.
Claude Chabrol followed this with a similar film The Unfaithful Wife, in which a husband named Charles murders the lover of his cheating wife.
30.
Claude Chabrol finished the decade with This Man Must Die in 1969.
31.
In 1970 Claude Chabrol made The Butcher starring Jean Yanne and Stephane Audran.
32.
Later in 1971 Claude Chabrol made Ten Days' Wonder, based on a novel by Ellery Queen.
33.
Claude Chabrol followed this with the equally disliked Dr Popaul, starring Jean-Paul Belmondo and Mia Farrow.
34.
Claude Chabrol took a slight change of pace with his 1973 film Wedding in Blood by making his first film with political themes.
35.
Claude Chabrol followed this political theme with Nada, in which a group of young anarchists kidnap an American ambassador.
36.
Claude Chabrol returned to more familiar ground in 1975 with A piece of pleasure.
37.
Claude Chabrol ended his Golden Period with one of his most admired and his most controversial films Violette Noziere in 1978.
38.
In 1995 Claude Chabrol was awarded the Prix Rene Clair from the Academie francaise for his body of work.
39.
Claude Chabrol continued directing films and TV series well into the 2000's.
40.
Claude Chabrol divorced Agnes to marry the actress Stephane Audran, with whom he had a son, actor Thomas Chabrol.
41.
Claude Chabrol was a known gourmet chef and shot 10 Days Wonder in Alsace only because he wanted to visit its restaurants.
42.
Claude Chabrol is buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in north-eastern Paris.