If this really WAS the one that started the new wavelet then it wouldn't be so bad and would never have done the French film industry as much harm as the semi-Amateur Godard would inflict on it. Most directors who are around for several decades display a certain amount of unevenness in their work but Chabrol has got it to a Fine Art. I'm glad I'm not alone - I've been reading some of the other comments here - in finding the music highly risible, so much so that I times I thought it was deliberate parody. More like a documentary that a feature it seldom rises above the ho-hum and Gerard Blain (Serge) must have wondered what he'd let himself in for after seeing at first hand how the Big Boys do it when he worked, two years earlier, with maestro Julien Duvivier on Voice les temps des assassin. See it as a curio but don't miss Neighbours to do so.
Review of Le Beau Serge
