Claude Chabrol's Aesthetics of Opacity

Dousteyssier-Khoze, Catherine

Claude Chabrol's Aesthetics of Opacity

Dousteyssier-Khoze, Catherine

Authors

Professor Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze catherine.dousteyssier@durham.ac.uk
Professor

Abstract

Claude Chabrol's cinema is generally associated with a specific type of psychological thriller, one set in the French provinces and fascinated with murder, incest, fragmented families, unstable spaces and inscrutable female characters. But Chabrol's films are both deceptively accessible and deeply reflexive, and in this innovative reappraisal of his filmography Catherine Dousteyssier-Khoze explores the Chabrol who was influenced by Balzac, Magritte and Stanley Kubrick. Bringing to the fore Chabrol’s ‘aesthetic of opacity’, the book deconstructs the apparent clarity and comfort of his chosen genre, encouraging the viewer to reflect on the relationship between illusion and reality, and the status of the film image itself.

Citation

Dousteyssier-Khoze, C. (2017). Claude Chabrol's Aesthetics of Opacity. Edinburgh University Press

Book Type	Authored Book
Online Publication Date	Dec 1, 2017
Publication Date	Dec 1, 2017
Deposit Date	Oct 14, 2013
Publicly Available Date	Dec 1, 2020
Publisher	Edinburgh University Press
Publisher URL	https://edinburghuniversitypress.com/book-claude-chabrol-039-s-aesthetics-of-opacity-hb.html