The Cousins (Les cousins)

In “The Cousins” – the first of several films that would win international awards for New Wave director Claude Chabrol – Charles (Gerard Blain) is the cousin from the provinces with “bourgeois” values. His steadfast determination unfortunately does not help him pass exams or, at first, succeed with women. Paul (Jean-Claude Brialy) is the urbane, rather debauched and decadent cousin who appears to conquer all. But appearances can be deceiving, as they discover when Charles falls for Paul’s friend Florence (Juliette Mayniel), and tragedy waits in the wings.

Citing “The Cousins” as one of the director’s “most striking successes,” the estimable film Web site Senses of Cinema notes: “For the first time in Chabrol’s work, ‘Les Cousins’ shifts it social locus away from the working class and into the bourgeoisie where it will remain for the rest of the director’s oeuvre. It is also important to note that this film marked the beginning of a long-term collaboration with the screenwriter Paul Gégauff, whose sense of cruelty and black humour come to the fore of this extraordinary tale of urban fatalism and decadent irony.”