Synopsis: In LES COUSINS, Claude Chabrol (Les Bonnes Femmes) crafts a sly moral fable about a provincial boy who comes to live with his sophisticated bohemian cousin in Paris. Through these seeming opposites, Chabrol conjures a piercing, darkly comic character study that questions notions of good and evil, love and jealousy, and success in the modern world. A mirror image of Le beau Serge, Chabrol's debut, LES COUSINS recasts that film's stars, Jean-Claude Brialy and Gérard Blain, in startlingly reversed roles. This dagger-sharp drama won the Golden Bear at the Berlin Film Festival and was an important precursor to the French New Wave.

Language: French

Country of Origin: France

Production Year: 1959

Reviews:

• "Extraordinary camera work... Darkly humorous.", Harvard Film Archive
• "Sublime venom...One of Chabrol's best.", Richard Brody, The New Yorker

Awards:

• 1959: Winner, Golden Bear, Berlin International Film Festival