Wordiezett So much average

Lumsdal Good , But It Is Overrated By Some

Fairaher The film makes a home in your brain and the only cure is to see it again.

Curt Watching it is like watching the spectacle of a class clown at their best: you laugh at their jokes, instigate their defiance, and "ooooh" when they get in trouble.

MARIO GAUCI The film that officially kick-started the "Nouvelle Vague" (interestingly, Chabrol was the only one in that talented crowd to have debuted with a full-length feature and self-financed to boot!) is, surprisingly, an "Angry Young Man"-type drama in a pastoral setting. The radical technique associated with this school of film-making is not really in evidence in this case, but nor is it needed – given that what we have here is essentially a character-driven piece.In this respect, apart from the director himself (who also wrote the film on his own), the film brought in an array of fresh talent in front of the cameras as well – namely Gerard Blain (evoking Montgomery Clift in particular), Jean-Claude Brialy (restrained in comparison to his other work for Chabrol that I have watched) and the waif-like Bernadette Lafont (already effortlessly exuding carnality in her second film – and the first of 7 with this director – she was also married to her co-star Blain at the time).Chabrol's realistic depiction of provincial France here, authentic both in the everyday detail of the locale and its characters' foibles (Blain is a hopeless drunk, Lafont is raped by her 'father', etc.), actually makes the much-later THE HORSE OF PRIDE (1980) not the odd-film-out it had at first appeared! One other atypical element is that of spirituality – especially when, towards the end, Brialy determines (albeit predictably) to reform Blain almost at the cost of his own life during one particularly blizzard-ridden night in which his friend is supposed to become a father! By the way, Chabrol gives himself a cameo in the film: with him appears assistant director Philippe de Broca (whose character is named Jacques Rivette, after another "New Wave" exponent, obviously!); unfortunately, the subtitles – in a small white font – were especially hard to read during this scene.

writers_reign If this really WAS the one that started the new wavelet then it wouldn't be so bad and would never have done the French film industry as much harm as the semi-Amateur Godard would inflict on it. Most directors who are around for several decades display a certain amount of unevenness in their work but Chabrol has got it to a Fine Art. I'm glad I'm not alone - I've been reading some of the other comments here - in finding the music highly risible, so much so that I times I thought it was deliberate parody. More like a documentary that a feature it seldom rises above the ho-hum and Gerard Blain (Serge) must have wondered what he'd let himself in for after seeing at first hand how the Big Boys do it when he worked, two years earlier, with maestro Julien Duvivier on Voice les temps des assassin. See it as a curio but don't miss Neighbours to do so.

jazzest Released in a year ahead to the French New Wave landmarkssuch as Hiroshima Mon Amour, The 400 Blows, and Breathless,the first feature of another giant in the movement doesn't reallycontain any innovativeness that the others show off. Rather, LeBeau Serge expresses the modest respect to the directors of oldergenerations in France; especially there is an obvious similaritybetween Le Beau Serge and Bresson's The Diary of CountryPriest. However, like the rest of French New Wave, the film's lowbudget attitude loudly speaks the antithesis to the Frenchmainstream cinema, such as the works of Clement, at the point. Relationships among main characters randomly oscillatebetween friendship and hostility, don't develop, and go nowhere.Consequently the story can't keep the audience's attention.

dbdumonteil ...This first effort ,made on a shoestring budget ,actually belongs to the old directors school and would not be out of place in ,say ,Duvivier's or Clouzot's brilliant filmographies.It even recalls Italian neorealism sometimes.Anyway,among all the directors of the otherwise a bit overrated new wave,Chabrol is the most accessible,the most palatable, particularly for those ,like me ,who do not give a damn about ,say,Rohmer or Godard.The depiction of the Bourgeoisie which will begin with the follow-up "les cousins"(with Brialy teaming with Blain again) and will become Chabrol's trademark is absent here .Laffont is the only pure new wave actress :Brialy used to work with the "old "guard as well,and Blain 's career really began with Julien Duvivier's unfairly overlooked and sensational "voici le temps des assassins"(1956).The story is linear,with a lot of characters and a dash of melodrama thrown in -which is by no means new wavesque-.The rural milieu depiction will pave a reliable way for the highly superior "le boucher" (1969).There's also a tendency to dwell on the sordid side of life.Outside the good cast,two scenes in a graveyard are impressive.