French filmmaker Claude Chabrol died 12 September 2010 of unknown causes. Born 24 June 1930 in Paris, France, he is known as a director of mysteries, and the founder of the “nouvelle vague” movement in French cinema.
His films often depicted the bourgeois social milieu, from which he came. In his youth, he studied literature and law, and then wrote movie reviews for the French film magazine Cahiers du cinema. His first film, Le Beau Serge (1958), was the story of a man’s return to his native village after a long absence, and won him critical acclaim. The AP, in announcing his death, said “It was considered a sort of manifesto for the New Wave, or ‘Nouvelle vague’ movement—which reinvented the codes of filmmaking and revolutionized cinema starting in the late 1950s. The vastly influential movement also included directors like Francois Truffaut and Jean-Luc Godard.”
Chabrol’s few forays into the sf/f/h genres include: Dr. M (1990), two episodes of Fantômas (1980), and Alice ou la dernière fugue (Alice or the Last Escapade, 1977).
Twice divorced, Chabrol is survived by his third wife, Aurore Chabrol, and three children (including composer Matthieu Chabrol and actor Thomas Chabrol).