''Le Beau Serge'' (, literal English translation: "Handsome Serge") is a 1958 French film directed by

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues a ...

. It has been cited as the first product of the Nouvelle Vague, or French New Wave, film movement. The film is often compared with Chabrol's subsequent film '' Les Cousins'', which also stars

Gérard Blain Gérard Blain (23 October 1930 – 17 December 2000) was a French actor and film director. Biography Blain appeared in sixty films between 1944 and 2000. He also directed nine films between 1971 and 2000. In 1971, he won the Golden Leopar ...

and

Jean-Claude Brialy Jean-Claude Brialy (30 March 1933 – 30 May 2007) was a French actor and film director. Early life Brialy was born in Aumale (now Sour El-Ghozlane), French Algeria, where his father was stationed with the French Army. Brialy moved to mainland ...

Plot

François, a young man recovering from a mild case of a respiratory illness (probably

tuberculosis Tuberculosis (TB) is an infectious disease usually caused by '' Mycobacterium tuberculosis'' (MTB) bacteria. Tuberculosis generally affects the lungs, but it can also affect other parts of the body. Most infections show no symptoms, ...

), returns to his home town of Sardent after a long absence to spend the winter there. He is surprised to find that his old friend Serge has, dissatisfied with life in the village, become a wretched alcoholic. Serge had hoped to leave the village to study, but had to stay to marry a local girl, Yvonne, when she became pregnant. Their first child was stillborn, but Yvonne is pregnant again. Though François feels somewhat out of place in the provincial village, he is driven by his desire to figure out a way to help Serge. While he works on this, he strikes up a relationship with Yvonne's promiscuous 17-year-old sister, Marie, with whom Serge also has a sexual history. Marie lives with Glomaud, a drunk who is rumored to not really be her biological father, though no one knows if he is aware of this. After Glomaud confronts François about sleeping with Marie and gets François to say that Marie is not his daughter, François visits Marie and discovers that Glomaud has just raped her. Serge and François alternately reminisce about the past and argue about the present and future. Things between them come to a head at a town dance when Serge beats up François for trying to stop him from cheating on Yvonne with Marie. François withdraws to his room for a time, unsure of what to do next. When François hears that Yvonne has gone into labor and neither the doctor nor Serge can be found, he jumps into action. First, he tracks down the doctor, who is attending to a sick Glomaud. The doctor does not want to leave, as he thinks the baby will probably be another stillbirth, while he can help Glomaud, but Glomaud tells him to go, since he has Marie to care for him. Going out again into the cold and dark, François finds Serge sleeping outside. Serge is very drunk, so François has to drag him home through the snow, but they make it in time for the birth of a healthy, though premature, baby boy. François collapses in exhaustion and Serge beams, crying and laughing almost hysterically.

Cast

as Serge *

as François Bayon *Michèle Méritz as Yvonne *

Bernadette Lafont Bernadette Lafont (28 October 1938 – 25 July 2013) was a French actress who appeared in more than 120 feature films. She has been considered "the face of French New Wave". In 1999 she told ''The New York Times'' her work was "the motor of my ex ...

as Marie * Claude Cerval as the priest *

Jeanne Pérez Jeanne Pérez (28 September 1894 – 11 May 1975) was a French film actress. She appeared in 50 films between 1930 and 1975. Filmography References External links * 1894 births 1975 deaths French film actresses People from Caste ...

as Madame Chaunier *

Edmond Beauchamp Edmond Beauchamp (3 March 1900 – 3 June 1985), sometimes credited only as Beauchamp, was a French film and Broadway stage actor. He appeared in 70 films between 1928 and 1979. Partial filmography * '' Misdeal'' (1928) - Le gitan (uncred ...

as Glomaud *André Dino as the doctor *Michel Creuze as Michel, the baker *

as La Truffe *

Philippe de Broca Philippe de Broca (; 15 March 1933 – 26 November 2004) was a French movie director. He directed 30 full-length feature films, including the highly successful '' That Man from Rio (''L'Homme de Rio'')'', '' The Man from Acapulco (Le Magnifique) ...

as Jacques Rivette de la Chasuble

Production

At one point, Chabrol had intended for '' Les Cousins'', rather than ''Le Beau Serge'', to be his first film project, but, due to that film's Paris setting, it would have been twice as expensive to film. ''Le Beau Serge'' was filmed in Sardent, where Chabrol, whose mother was from the village, often spent childhood summers with his grandmother and lived during the war years. It was shot over a period of nine weeks in the winter of 1957-8 on a budget of 32 million old French francs, which Chabrol acquired courtesy of an inheritance his first wife had received. The film was initially 2 hours and 35 minutes long. To reduce the running time, Chabrol cut a great deal of quasi-documentary material, a decision he later regretted.

References

External links

*
''Le beau Serge: Homecomings''
an essay by Terrence Rafferty at the

Criterion Collection The Criterion Collection, Inc. (or simply Criterion) is an American home-video distribution company that focuses on licensing, restoring and distributing "important classic and contemporary films." Criterion serves film and media scholars, cine ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Beau Serge French drama films 1958 films Films directed by Claude Chabrol Films about alcoholism 1958 directorial debut films