A small French village in the late 1950's is the setting for Chabrol's towering first film. A young man who grew up here comes home to recuperate from an illness, but his chief purpose is to re-connect with his childhood friend who's had a rough time during the ensuing years. The first half seems unfocused and oddly rambling in the way the townspeople are presented. The troubled Serge has become hostile, alcoholic and depressed due to the tragic death of his infant son. His wife is again pregnant and he fears a second child may also not survive. The two friends are at loggerheads for a long time, due chiefly to Serge's bitterness and suspicions of his friend's motives. But Jean Claude Brialy, the actor playing the part of the returning friend, persists - and in a brilliantly staged final sequence manages to alter the downward spiral of Serge's life. This great film ends with a lingering close-up of Gerard Blain's face that is the equivalent of Garbo's mythic final shot in "Queen Christina." The closing moments of "Le Beau Serge" are exhilarating and profoundly moving - TCM showed this recently - worth seeing, worth buying (it's available in Criterion) for anyone who seriously loves movies.
Review of Le Beau Serge
