Today I am in a way paying tribute to the director Claude Chabrol, one of the legends of the French New Wave cinema. Jean-Luc Godard, Francois Truffaut and Claude Chabrol, to name but a few, are directors who were part of 'La Nouvelle Vague', an era in the 1950's to 1960's in which the French film industry flourished with young talent.
These directors embraced a subtle, yet impulsive and rebellious method of film making. The way in which they questioned and critically assessed conventional methods for example, editing and cinematography in both their films and the volumes of critical film theory in 'Cahiers du Cinéma' , clearly displayed their doubt about the nature of film, solely as a 'tool' for entertainment. Nevertheless one cannot completely refrain from seeing and experiencing motion pictures as a form of entertainment. The director Claude Chabrol enveloped a certain balance in this aspect. Chabrol's films can be defined as a cross between the popular genre film and the elitist art film. In a way this balance between commercial and high-end artsy filming, could be considered as a certain integrity. However, this integrity is truly difficult to both attain and maintain as a director/artist.
Ultimately the question could be answered in many ways as could most questions, but the significant aspect of a 'better' and 'balanced' film is, for me, the fact that the intention of the film not just exceeds the borders of entertainment but specifically engages with it in a critical way.
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