Author: Zhao Jianzhong, researcher of Shanghai Academy of Social Sciences and director of Shanghai Film Critics Society
The Cold Sacrifice is a crime film by French director Chabrol. Hollywood crime films are already a highly mature genre, basically using assembly line production, but most of the works are more than wonderful, insufficient connotations; while French crime films do not take commerciality as the highest pursuit, focusing on observing and analyzing the causes of crime, exposing social contradictions, and triggering people's thinking. Chabrol's series of crime films inherit the aesthetic tradition of French crime films, and draw lessons from Hollywood crime films, especially Hitchcock films, thus reorganizing and enriching the expression methods of French crime films and reaching new aesthetic heights. This is epitomized in the Cold Sacrifice.
First, the film starts from the causes of crime, directly faces the social contradictions brought about by class differences, and enhances the profoundness of the film's reflection of social reality.
Chabrol was born in Paris in 1930 to a middle-class family, but he did not like Paris and the middle class all his life. Beginning with the 1959 film Cousins, he was interested in reflecting the differences between the middle class and the underclass, and the antagonisms and confrontations that arose. In the movie "Cold Sacrifice", he shows this contradiction to the extreme, carefully outlining and describing the differences between the maid Sophie and lelevre's family.
One is the difference between the Lord and the Servant. The Lelevre family was friendly to Sophie on the surface and contemptuous on the inside. They were unabashedly critical of her, taking up her weekend breaks and preventing her from interacting with friends. In this regard, Sophie could not find the right opportunity to fight back, and could only hide her dissatisfaction and resentment in her heart. The second is the difference between the rich class and the bottom society. Lelevre's rooms are numerous, functional, and have few windows; Sophie's maid's room is small and dark, and the only "luxury" is an old television set, and in addition to this bedroom, she can move the space in the kitchen. The third is the difference between the intellectual class and the illiterate. In twentieth-century France, whether or not it was well educated has become an important indicator of social class. In the film, Sophie is illiterate. In the view of the Lelevre family, literacy is a person's most basic ability. Although these differences do not always manifest themselves as confrontational conflicts, they will eventually lead to disastrous consequences over time.
Second, on the basis of inheriting the traditional French crime films, the film continues to dig deep into the social causes of crime, while at the same time making meticulous observations of individual psychology, enriching the character connotation.
Austrian psychiatrist Adler believes that everyone has different degrees of inferiority, and severe inferiority complex will develop into an inferiority complex, causing individuals to have mental disorders. Those who overcome their flaws tend to be more successful than ordinary people, while those who escape their flaws are prone to crime. Relatively speaking, most of the people who are in trouble due to the inferiority complex in life are vulnerable groups. Sophie's greatest inferiority stems from her illiteracy, but she never wants to change this state, choosing to escape, lie, and even threaten those who know the truth, eventually causing an irreversible tragedy. Another important character in the film, Jenny, a post office clerk, has a distinctly anti-system, anti-social personality. She privately dismantled Lelevre's letters, encouraged Sufies to rebel against their masters, and even deliberately disrupted the charity fundraising activities of the local Catholic Church. It is based on a comprehensive and in-depth observation of individual psychology that the internal logic of character behavior is clearer and the character image is more three-dimensional.
Third, the film incorporates elements of Hitchcock films, focusing on creating a thrilling atmosphere and suspense, and enhancing the tension and watchability of the film.
Trevor and Godard were the leaders of the New Wave of French cinema. In this revolution in cinematic aesthetics, they have taken a radical stand from the beginning, constructing their film world in a subversive posture. But because their film aesthetic is too extreme and avant-garde, the influence of their films is limited to the intellectual class. Chabrol reorganized and transformed the traditional French film aesthetic by absorbing the performance techniques of Hollywood films, especially Hitchcock films, and greatly improved the watchability of the film. As a result, Chabrol was known as the "Hitchcock of France". Since 1958, he has made more than 50 films, most of which deal with crime subjects, and often observe the daily life of the French middle class that he is most familiar with in the atmosphere of Hitchcock-esque suspense and thriller. His films reveal the hypocrisy hidden in the hearts of the middle class, and combine the depth of literary and artistic films with the breadth of commercial films.
At the 72nd Cannes Film Festival awards ceremony in 2019, South Korean director Bong Joon-ho thanked two French directors, Henri-Giorgio Kruzzo and Claude Chabrol. Bong Joon-ho mentions Chabrol in large part because his film Parasite was born out of Chabrol's Cold Sacrifice. Chabrol, along with Godard and Truffaut, is known as the "three musketeers" of the French film new wave, but has long been overshadowed by the aura of Godard and Truffaut. The author believes that the new wave of French cinema can be summarized and evaluated from many angles, but it should be pointed out that in this far-reaching film aesthetic revolution, Chabrol has also made unique contributions. All of his works, including the Cold Sacrifice, deserve careful reading and summarization. (Zhao Jianzhong)
Source: Guangming Network - Literary And Art Review Channel