The Claude Chabrol Collection [DVD]

Almost all the films in this box-set date from Claude Chabrol's great period (late 1960s/early 1970s), when he seemed to come up with one terrific movie after another. Included here are "La Femme Infidele", "Le Boucher", "Que La Bete Meure", "Juste Avant La Nuit" and "Les Noces Rouges", which seem to me masterpieces; and also "Les Biches" and "Nada", which are at least brilliant and unsettling entertainments. The one other film in the box-set is the only one which can't be classed as a thriller, and which dates from much later in Chabrol's career - his early-1990s version of "Madame Bovary", with Isabelle Huppert. This was not greatly liked by critics when new, but it seems to me to have aged well; it's a thoroughly satisfying and unfussy version of a literary classic, rather more successful than the Hollywood version of 1949 directed by Vincente Minnelli. There isn't a dud in the whole octet, and five of them are superb. It's a pity about the very American subtitles provided for "Nada" (there were different ones for the film's British release in 1974), which are also very small and hard to read until you get used to them, but Chabrol can't be held accountable for this minor blemish. It's also a pity, one may as well add, that two more splendid - and astonishingly perverse! - Chabrol films from the great period, "Le Scandale" (aka "The Champagne Murders") and "Ten Days' Wonder" (aka "La Decade Prodigueuse"), haven't as yet made it onto DVD in Britain. How about it, somebody?

I wanted to order this Claude Chabrol set, but I knew that in the UK the censorship is very strict - some films are ruthlessly cut before being released in the UK. So I decided to visit the "Arrow Films" site to check out the duration of the films - I chose "Les Biches", the first film of the "Claude Chabrol Collection". Duration: 94 minutes. Ok. Then I went to IMDB to see the run time of "Les Biches". Run Time: 100 minutes.The film was cut by six minutes! A film that was released in 1968 was cut by 6 minutes! OK. And I also discovered that the American Amazon offers an uncut version of "Les Biches". Duration - 100 minutes.I know that this "Claude Chabrol Collection" is a real bargain. But probably some of the other films besides "Les Biches" may be cut as well. So if you want to see uncut films, I think it's better to look somewhere else.

It's astonishing that Chabrol is not more widely admired. Just to look at the dates of seven of the eight films in this highly impressive collection is enough to put many of film-makers' efforts into context. Chabrol, from 1969 to the early 'Seventies, was not only prolific but managed a sequence of shockingly powerful films, sometimes two or three in rapid succession. His work is, however, the very opposite of the frivolous, the throwaway. Chabrol's concern is acute and profound: the piteous sacrifices we make to avoid being virtuous. There is a strong French tradition of cynicism, under-pinned by pity (Laclos, Zola, to cite but two writers) who write muscular works of relentless fatalism. Chabrol updates this and shows, however, that almost nothing has changed. Chabrol's films, in this collection, are based on novels. Consequently, what we get are concentrated lines that can sometimes make the scenarii feel liked filmed theatre. But, if this is so, the lines all converge and the plots concentrate multiple human frailties in a single tight knot. There are so many grey, provincial towns in France, their windows shuttered and dust filling every crevice: Chabrol shows what may well be going on in the hearts of the people hiding behind these drab facades. The faces of Chabrol's actors, their deeds, their failures and their passions, bring the tragedies of those hearts to life, fleetingly, precisely. I cannot think of another filmmaker who so powerfully realized his vision. Stunning.

Some of the reviews here are very misleading. They refer to a different box with different Chabrol-movies. They refer among others to Les biches and Le boucher: movies that are missing in the box that is offered here on sale. This box only contains 3 movies: Rien ne va plus, Merci pour le chocolat, and La fleur du mal. So, be careful.

I hadn't seen much Chabrol, but "La Femme Infidele" was recommended, so we have seen and applauded that, and look forward to other such as "Le Boucher". We did watch "Madame Bovary", but to our surprise thought it less good than the Minnelli version, hence the four-star verdict. From what we have seen so far, the DVD quality is OK, though I suspect some fading of Eastmancolor may have happened as the colour seems rather under-saturated. Worth the money, certainly.

He's known as the French "Hitchcock" and whatever that means it tells you that these films are very watchable. They usually revolve around a crime and its consequences often involving illicit love. Apart from Madame Bovary from 1991 (a bit out of place in this collection I think) the rest are classic Chabrol between 1968-1974 and five of them star his wife at the time and muse Stephane Audran who is simply stunning. You can't turn the subtitles off (if you wanted to) and there are no extras. The best? Juste avant la nuit - a man accidentally kills his lover who happens to be the wife of his best friend and is tormented by guilt and the need to confess. It has one of the best twists in the end that I've ever seen in a film. The rest are very satisfying too with scenes you'll want to watch again.