Claude Chabrol

"Cinematic provocateur and master of French suspense", Claude Chabrol was born in 1930 in Paris, France and was an active film director from the 1950s until his death in 2010. Renowned for his mastery in the genres of drama and suspense, Chabrol's most famous films include "Les Biches", "La Cérémonie", and "Le Beau Serge", the latter earning him the Golden Bear Award at the 1959 Berlin International Film Festival. His authorial style is characterized by a critical eye towards bourgeois society, a fondness for psychological realism, and a knack for suspenseful storytelling, often compared to the work of Alfred Hitchcock.

Chabrol, with his ever-present cigar and constant air of bemusement, was not just a commentator on the human condition but a genuine lover of its many contradictions and complexities.