Customer Reviews

Claude Chabrol Collection

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4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(1)

 

 

I love Chabrol, but these 8 DVDs (which include some of his best-known films) are an utter disgrace. The transfers are so low-grade that the images squirm and squiggle up and down. Even the scratchiest videotapes are more watchable than these. I feel completely ripped off. Even more, I'm furious that a great director like Chabrol should have to suffer in the hands of unscrupulous merchants like the ones responsible for these abominations. AVOID!!!

These DVDs were transfered and distributed by a low-rent production house in LA and seem like a total rush job. The subtitles are poorly translated and the video is sloppy. Maybe one day, these masterworks will fall into more professional and capable hands. Til then, rent don't buy.

These eight films (LES BICHES, THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE, THIS MAN MUST DIE, LE BOUCHER, LA RUPTURE, TEN DAYS' WONDER, NADA, and INNOCENTS WITH DIRTY HANDS) are all reviewed separately, as those are the editions included in the set. Except for THE UNFAITHFUL WIFE, and TEN DAYS' WONDER, all the films are letterboxed. There are English subtitles for all the films, and there are English soundtracks on some of the films, if you do not want to read subtitles (but the films were originally in French.) This set spans almost ten years of the career of Claude Chabrol, and gives a great overview of his best work. The Butcher (Le Boucher) is very interesting, but I personally loved This Man Must Die (Que La Bete Meure), which concerns a father's loss of his son due to a fatal hit and run car accident, and his quest to kill the person who killed his son. The plot thickens when he actually finds the man who fled the scene and discovers everyone hates him (and would not mind seeing him dead) except for his mother. It is interesting too that The Unfaithful Wife is the original film that inspired UNFAITHFUL (with Diane Lane). TEN DAYS' WONDER stars Orson Welles, and Anthony Perkins as father and son! Separately these 8 films are $15-$20 each, but here, (and elsewhere) you can get them cheaper and all at once. I watched all of the films from the set, and had no problems with aspect ratios. It is a great set of films.

Chabrol is every bit the master he is touted to be!! La Femme Infidele was recently remade as Unfaithful with Diane Lane but the original by Chabrol is by far the masterpiece - I would highly recommend this box set for fans of Chabrol and fans of films in general!

Claude Chabrol was one of the most admirable icons of that reminded effusion of irreverent attitude and profound transformation of the narrative structure that meant the New Wave.

In spite of the fact Chabrol starred the movement with "The cousins" , his aesthetical concerns emigrated toward the demolishing process of decadence nestled in a good portion of the Industrial society.

Inheritor f the great tradition of the Noir genre, he became via Hitchcock the epitome of the suspense and the tragedy but enrooted into the Greek tradition. His fascination with the demons of the contemporary man led to legate us masterworks such as The unfaithful woman (1969), The butcher (1970), This man must die (to my mind his major achievement ever (1970), Innocents with dirty hands, his notable films based on the famous Lavardin Inspector and Le enfer.

His inimitable style was forging itself through the years. Once he abandoned the Hitchcockian influence to get into the core of the ambivalent universe of the human beings, its affective miseries and hopelessly existence.

His recent death on last September 12th leaves a void impossible to fill. This is an excellent opportunity for the new generations of performing arts to revise and revisit his vast cinematography.

Farewell to a Giant of the Cinema. Au revoir!!

Pour ceux et celles qui aiment le cinéma Français à son meilleur: le coffret Claude Chabrol collection est indispensable.
Si vous voulez revoir Stéphane Audran dans des rôles qui lui collent bien à la peau, sentir l`atmosphère feutré et laisser la musique quelques fois dérangeante de ces films d`époque, vous devez voir ces oeuvres qui datent des années 60-70. Un pur délice.
La qualité de l`image est ahurissante, le son est impeccable....
Il faut par contre aimer le cinéma au rythme lent, aux longs plans de caméra....
Vive le cinéma Français....