After ‘Le beau Serge’, that I had watched a few days ago, I now saw ‘Les cousins‘ (1959), the other film in the diptych that launched Claude Chabrol‘s career and was one of the first successes of the French New Wave . The two films have many elements in common. Both were produced, directed and written (‘Les cousins’ in collaboration) by Chabrol exemplifying and reinforcing the concept of auteur film. The same two actors appear in the main roles – Gérard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy. Cinematography belongs in both to Henri Decaë. The two films express the same feelings of rebellion of the generation of young people of the late 1950s, a generation whose childhood had been marked by the war and the years of restrictions that followed. Filmmakers who wanted to make films differently chose as their heroes angry young people who wanted to live differently.
Watched together, as I did this week, the two films inevitably invite comparison. It was only a coincidence of lack of funds to film in Paris that led to ‘Le beau Serge’, set in Chabrol‘s childhood village, to be filmed and released before ‘Les cousins‘ . In the filmography of the French director, however, this order is better. Even if Chabrol would shoot again later in the countryside, “Les cousins” takes place in the apartments and on the streets of Paris, where many of the plots of many other New Wave films take place. We encounter for the first time in this film the sarcastic vision of the more or less intellectual French bourgeoisie that will eventually become the collective favorite character of his films and the target of the merciless satires they contain. The world of students is also presented, another social category that will play an important role not only on the screens but also in the political life of France in the decade that would follow. In both films one of the heroes is the outsider, the one who tries to enter (or re-enter) the society of the place without adopting its rules, but also without having the power to change them. In this case young Charles comes to Paris to live with his cousin Paul. Both are Law students, but their lifestyles are as different as can be. The cynical Paul explores not only the volatility of love relationships but also the power control in relations of the extremes. The naive and provincial Charles promotes his innocence and makes the mistake of sharing his feelings when he falls in love with the beautiful Florence. Paul tries by all means to corrupt him, including stealing his girlfriend and manipulating their feelings. The game becomes dangerous, especially when several firearms hang on the walls of the luxurious Parisian apartment.
Gérard Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy are formidable, as they were in ‘Le beau Serge’, although here the roles are completely different. The romantic triangle is completed by Juliette Mayniel, a beautiful and talented actress with a magnetism that propelled her among the stars of the New Wave, but whose career faded after the Wave passed. Stéphane Audran also appears for here for the first time in a film by Chabrol. She who would become his wife a year later and would be his partner and muse for the next two decades. From many points of view ‘Les cousins‘ seems a more complete and mature film than ‘Le beau Serge’. I couldn’t help but wonder what the two films would have looked like if they were made in reverse order, as originally intended. But perhaps even in film history chance sometimes plays a winning card.