#581: CHABROL, Claude: Les Cousins (1959)

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CHABROL, Claude (France)
Les Cousins [1959]
Spine #581
Blu-ray


In Les cousins, Claude Chabrol crafts a sly moral fable about a provincial boy who comes to live with his sophisticated bohemian cousin in Paris. Through these seeming opposites, Chabrol conjures a darkly comic character study that questions notions of good and evil, love and jealousy, and success in the modern world. A mirror image of Le beau Serge, Chabrol's debut, Les cousins recasts that film's stars, Jean-Claude Brialy and Gérard Blain, in startlingly reversed roles. This dagger-sharp drama won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and was an important early entry in the French New Wave.

109 minutes
Black & White
Monaural
in French
1:33:1 aspect ratio
Criterion Release 2011
Director/Writers


Claude Chabrol was 29 when he wrote and directed Les Cousins.
Dialogue by Paul Gégauff.

Other Chabrol films in the Collection:

#580: Le Beau Serge (1958)
#1199: La cérémonie (1995)

The Film

Film Rating (0-60):

60

The Extras

The Booklet

Twenty-four page booklet featuring an essay by film critic Terrence Rafferty and excerpts from actor Brialy’s memoir, about costar Blain.

Commentary

Featuring film scholar Adrian Martin.
Theatrical trailer

Extras Rating (0-40):

39

60 + 39 =

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