CLAUDE
CHABROL
Director
For a director whose 1958 debut, LE BEAU SERGE, is universally
recognized as launching the French New Wave a year before
Truffaut’s The 400 Blows took Cannes by storm, Claude
Chabrol is an exquisitely understated filmmaker. Whether
exploring a convoluted ménage à trios in
LES BICHES (1968) or having a vengeful postmistress and
an illiterate servant blow away a bourgeois family in
A JUDGMENT IN STONE (1995), he never takes the audience
for granted. Instead, he concentrates on perfectly pitched
plots and an unparalleled sense of human psychology to
rivet spectators to their seats, refusing to let go until
he has inexorably squeezed the last drop of blood or passion
from the on-screen situations he consummately choreographs.
Chabrol’s mastery of the thriller genre, as well
as his rotund physique, has led to inevitable comparisons
with Alfred Hitchcock. It is a comparison that the director
insists, “is neither entirely fair, nor entirely
false”. But unlike Hitchcock, and very much like
the fine wines he tastes with undiluted pleasure, Chabrol
improves with age. After his critically and commercially
acclaimed early years, and his wilderness decade in the
1980s, Chabrol burst back onto the scene with a string
of hits in the last ten years - MADAME BOVARY, BETTY,
HELL, A JUDGMENT IN STONE, NIGHTCAP - that brought awards
at festivals and packed houses in theatres. The common
thread of those pictures was a number of strong, alluring
roles for some of France’s best actresses, Emmanuelle
Béart, Sandrine Bonnaire and Isabelle Huppert.
Now with THE BRIDESMAID, adapted from Ruth Rendell’s
novel, the director has brought together two brilliant
young actors, Benoît Magimel and Laura Smet, to
tell a tangled, edgy tale of twisted passion reminiscent
of his most accomplished films noirs.
RUTH RENDELL
Novelist
Crime novelist Ruth Rendell was born in London and educated
at Loughton County High School, Essex. She is Fellow of
the Royal Society of Literature and has received many
awards for her work, including the Crime Writers' Association
Cartier Diamond Dagger (lifetime achievement award), and
the Sunday Times Award for Literary Excellence.
She is the author of a series of over 17 novels featuring
Detective Chief Inspector Wexford, set in Kingsmarkham,
a fictional English town. The first of these, FROM DOON
WITH DEATH, is also her first novel and was published
in 1964. Books in the series include KISSING THE GUNNER'S
DAUGHTER (1992), SIMISOLA (1994), ROAD RAGE (1997), and
most recently, END IN TEARS (2005). She also writes novels
under the pseudonym Barbara Vine. These books include
A DARK-ADAPTED EYE (1986), A FATAL INVERSION (1987), winner
of the Crime Writers' Association Macallan Gold Dagger
for Fiction, GALLOWGLASS (1990), KING SOLOMON'S CARPET
(1991), ASTA'S BOOK (1993) and THE BRIMSTONE WEDDING (1995).
Many of Ruth Rendell's stories have been adapted into
feature films, notably Claude Chabrol's LA CÉRÉMONIE
(1995), Pedro Almodovar's LIVE FLESH (1997) and Claude
Miller's ALIAS BETTY (2001).
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