Le Beau Serge

Latecomer: Le Beau Serge

This one hasn't been on my shelf too long. I think I got it last time Barnes & Noble did their whole 50% off all Criterion dealie.

I think this may be the first Chabrol movie I have seen. Fitting, I say, as it was his first film. Maybe I should visit his filmography entirely chronologically. Or maybe that would be too daunting. But with the level of skill and intuition on display in Le Beau Serge, I imagine his films were all very impressive.

Camera movement. That's the main thing I noticed in this film. Lots of long takes. Lots of scenes that took place in just one take. There was a lot going on but it was very easy to follow. This is certainly the work of a filmmaker who has spent a lot of time studying film. Perhaps he was a film critic who decided he would pick up a camera? He was? Cahiers du what now?

But anyway. I don't know what else to say here. It was inventive but not to the degree that other New Wave directors would take things. But he beat them to the punch, so maybe he continued to push and innovate as the 60s went on. I certainly can't wait to find out. If nothing else, I could watch lots of his movies just for the fact that the camera work is certain to be impressive and probably a big influence on later directors such as Paul Thomas Anderson and Martin Scorsese.

Highly recommended, although maybe not as highly as the early work of Truffaut or Godard. But that's just this one movie.