Claude Chabrol Biography

Master of the suspense film, Claude Chabrol, was born in Paris on June 24, 1930. Growing up in wartime France, Chabrol found escape in film, running a film club in a barn with friends, showing whatever movies they could find. After studying pharmacology, law, and literature, and with the help of his first wife’s inheritance, Chabrol became a professional filmmaker. Beginning in the 1950s, the director averaged a film a year over five decades. Chabrol’s extensive body of work features ordinary settings peopled by emotionally detached characters, telling psychologically-charged stories with acerbic wit and antibourgeois themes. The prolific filmmaker’s prize list includes Prix Jean Vigo, for Le beau serge, 1958; Berlin International Film Festival, Golden Bear Award, for Les cousins, 1959; New York Film Critics Circle Award, for Story of Women, 1989; European Film Awards, Lifetime Achievement Award, 2003. Claude Chabrol died of complications resulting from severe anemia at the age of 80.