Summary
Charles, a young man from the country, travels to Paris to take his exams in law.
He shares a flat with his cousin, Paul, who is also taking exams, but who is a complete
contrast to Charles. Whereas Charles is studious, respectful and honest, Charles
is an extravagant pleasure-seeker, with far more time for drink and women than for studying.
Charles falls in love with one of Paul’s wide entourage of friends, a young woman called
Florence. Whilst Florence feels that she ought to love Charles in return, Paul is
determined to stop the relationship, for his cousin’s best interest, and ends up winning
Florence’s affections for himself. Charles is devastated by the loss of his love
and buries himself in his studies for his exams. However, Charles’ fortunes do not
improve and in the end he loses everything.
Review
Les Cousins is definitively part of the French New Wave of the late 1950s.
Whilst slightly more polished than the films of his contemporaries (notably Godard and
Truffaut), Chabrol’s film bubbles with an insurgence of new cinematographic techniques
and fresh acting talent. The sense of newness is reinforced by presence of so many
young actors, dressed elegantly in tuxedos and evening dresses, but acting somewhat delinquently
for the most part. The film appears almost like the christening party for the birth
of a new era in French cinema.
Both the direction and photography are of a high calibre and capture very well the changing
mood of the central character, Charles. The film starts cheerfully and optimistically
with the young man’s arrival in Paris. Like him, we are enchanted by the bright
lights, the wide boulevards and the historic monuments. But then, little by little,
the mood changes to ennui and disappointment when the shallowness of the Paris jet set
is revealed. Finally, a much darker mood prevails as Charles’ best efforts to succeed
are brutally crushed by a combination of circumstances, partly of his own making but largely
as a result of the hand of fate. This ability to alter the mood of the film so subtly
and effectively is one of Chabrol’s great skills as a director and is used to far greater
effect in some of his subsequent thrillers.
Both of the two central characters, Charles and Paul, are played admirably by Gérard
Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy. Blain manages to capture the innocence of the outsider
and offers a sympathetic and memorable performance. Brialy seems to revel in his
role as the extravagant city man, hosting his parties with the gusto of a true bon-vivant,
whilst exhibiting a more complicated and sensitive persona in his conversations with the
characters Charles and Florence.
Both actors were used by Chabrol in an earlier film, Le
Beau Serge, which, in many ways, is the mirror image of Les Cousins.
In Le Beau Serge, Brialy played a city boy who returns to his home in a provincial
town where he meets up wih a childhood friend played by Blain. Brialy’s character
was the outsider who is ultimately destroyed by his alien surroundings. In
Les Cousins, the situation is cleverly reversed. Here, Blain’s character is a country
boy who joins Brialy in the city of Paris. It is Blain’s character who is now the
outsider, and who is finally destroyed by his unfamiliar environment. It is interesting
to watch the two films back-to-back, to note the similarities and compare the differences.
Both films seem to side with the outsider and condemn the society that rejects him, although
it is perhaps disappointing that, in both cases, that the outsider is destroyed without
having any significant impact on the society that crushed him. At least, in Le
Beau Serge, the victim’s fate was sealed by an altruistic desire to do some good for
the community that rejected him, whereas in Les Cousins, the victim brought his
destruction on himself by trying to attack the society he felt so repulsive.
Les Cousins lacks the poetry and emotional intensity of Le Beau Serge, and
appears in some places a little too stage-managed. (The ending is particularly stagy,
but it works perfectly to the film’s advantage.) On the plus side, Les Cousins
benefits from a far better musical score, a more interesting set of characters, and
some impressive location filming in Paris. It is an engaging and accessible film
which still manages to appear fresh and vibrant.
© James Travers 2002
For further information see:
Dennis
Grunes essay
For more on Claude Chabrol see:
The life of Claude Chabrol
Le Beau Serge
Les Cousins
Le Boucher
Que la bête meure
La Cérémonie
Buy films by Claude Chabrol
More about the French New Wave
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