104 - Les Cousins, 1959, France. Dir. Claude Chabrol.

Friday, April 14, 2017

104 - Les Cousins, 1959, France. Dir. Claude Chabrol.

Charles the Innocent.  Lives in the country.  Is coming to study law.

With his cousin.

Paul the Decadent.  Who lives in the city.  Who intends to have a good time.

After all, school exists for revelry.

Charles stays with Paul at Paul's place.  And tries to study.  And write to his mother.

While Paul hosts grand parties.  Wild parties.  Parties that wake the neighbors.  Parties that break the breakables.

With his friend, the hustler, Clovis.  Who makes sure to bring something, or someone, new and exciting every time.

Paul, after all, will pass the Bar regardless of what he does.  Life is easy.  Life is a breeze.  Life is to be lived to its fullest.

Charles loves his mother and wants to please her.  He is afraid of letting her down.

He allows that fear to paralyze him.  Despite the amount of time he puts into studying, his mind is perpetually distracted by fear.

He meets Florence.

He falls in love with her.

He wants to pass the Bar and marry her.  And have a life together.

And please his mother.

He does not know what the others know about Florence.

That she is . . . experienced.  With the others.

Florence does not care.  She reciprocates.  She wants to marry Charles.  Wants to love him.  Wants to have a life together.

But Paul knows better.

And Clovis knows better.

Or so they believe.

She is wild.  He is good.

He is not fit for her.  She is not fit for him.

Charles and Florence will meet at 3:00 pm.

He shows up in town and waits for her.

She shows up at Paul's place and waits for him.

And on the hinge of that missed meeting everything turns.

Like Sliding Doors.

Do you make the train?  Or do you miss the train?

And how does life turn out because of it?

Who will pass the Bar?

Who will live a good life?

Who will live?

Les Cousins is the second film made by Claude Chabrol, a progenitor of the Nouvelle Vague, or New Wave.

It stars the same two men as his first film, yesterday's Le Beau Serge (1958)--Jean-Claude Brialy as Paul and Gerard Blain as Charles.

They play similar roles in both movies, in that in both movies Brialy lives in the city while Blain lives in the country, or small town.

But they play different roles, in that in the first Brialy arrives to visit Blain while in the second Blain arrives to visit Brialy.  Also, in the first film Brialy is the studious one while Blain is the heavy drinker, and in the second film Blain is the studious one while Brialy is the heavy drinker.

The first film takes place in the small village.  The second film takes place in the big city.

Les Cousins also features one of our beloved actors, Guy Decomble, who plays the owner of a bookstore and who in a couple of funny scenes tries to get Charles to steal Balzac from him because he loves Balzac so much that he wants to share Balzac's works with everyone.

We have already seen Guy Decomble in Jean Renoir's melodrama on the railroad, The Human Beast (La Bete Humain) (1938), in Jacques Tati's first feature Jour de Fete (1949), and in Jean-Pierre Melville's crime drama Bob Le Flambeur (1956).  Soon we will see him in one of his most famous roles (to Americans at least), as the teacher in Francois Truffaut's first film The 400 Blows (1959).

Guy Decomble was an accomplished actor.  In each of the films listed above he plays a different and distinct character.  His presence on the screen adds life to the film.

Even, as in this case, there may be death.