The Cousins
The Cousins

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- 72/100 based on 3,128 votes

Charles is a young provincial coming up to Paris to study law. He shares his cousin Paul's flat. Paul is a kind of decadent boy, a disillusioned pleasure-seeker, always dragging along with other idles, while Charles is a plodding, naive and honest man. He fell in love with Florence, one of Paul's acquaintances. But how will Paul react to that attempt to build a real love relationship ? One of the major New Wave films.... (Full plot summary below)

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Actors in The Cousins:

Gérard Blain
Jean-Claude Brialy
Juliette Mayniel
Guy Decomble
Geneviève Cluny
Michèle Méritz

Full Plot Details

Charles is a young provincial coming up to Paris to study law. He shares his cousin Paul's flat. Paul is a kind of decadent boy, a disillusioned pleasure-seeker, always dragging along with other idles, while Charles is a plodding, naive and honest man. He fell in love with Florence, one of Paul's acquaintances. But how will Paul react to that attempt to build a real love relationship ? One of the major New Wave films.

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Movie Reviews

Variety - 9/10 by Variety StaffConcise progression, fine technical aspects, and the look at innocence destroyed by the profane keeps it absorbing, despite the slightly pretentious treatment at times.
Chicago Reader - 8/10 by Don DrukerThis is Chabrol's second film, and its subtle development of character points toward the dense structures of his later films with their reluctance either to condemn or extol without reservation.
CinePassion - 8/10 by Fernando F. CroceReversing the setting and characters of Le Beau Serge, Claude Chabrol discovers the acerbic stylization that he would for the rest of his career polish and sharpen
Cinema em Cena - 7/10 by Pablo VillaçaUm dos filmes seminais da nouvelle vague, aborda com inteligência as diferenças de caráter e de postura diante da vida de dois primos: um inseguro e introspectivo, e outro sedutor e confiante. Boas atuações e direção segura de Chabrol.
Q Network Film Desk - 6/10 by James Kendricktoo programmed, too deterministic, and ultimately too cynical
User Review - 10/10 by Stefanie CThere are few characters in the movies I've seen in my lifetime that I've connected with so deeply as this film's central protagonist, Charles. He is, for me, a perfect amalgamation of the thoughts, joys, concerns and tragedies real human beings have, the ones filmmakers don't tend to bother with because they're difficult. He is played extraordinarily by Gerard Blain. Blain and Jean-Claude Brialy, both of whom starred in Claude Chabrol's first film where they played decidedly inverse parts as these, make this one of the most excitingly acted movies of the French New Wave, even rivaling the intensity, spontaneity and fire of Jean-Paul Belmondo, who is arguably the face of the movement's acting power. This is a dark film about nasty people, the kind of real people who do mean things because mean things are interesting; they do mean things out of fear, desperation, jealousy and hatred, and Chabrol captures every character in his film- even Charles, in fleeting moments- at their animalistic worst. He is unabashedly (but unpretentiously) shrewd and mashes his characters together into small spaces, with plenty of booze, and we are invited to witness their miniature acts of violence as they rapidly fire them at each other and at themselves. Though his debut film, 'Le Beau Serge', also deals with cruelty and failure, there is something warm and loving about its environment; in it, Chabrol cannot hide his love of the rural town of Sardent, where he spent much of his childhood. In this film he takes away that sanctuary and instead plots his story in an unforgiving urban setting. Charles finds no forgiveness in his surroundings and seeks shelter instead by burying himself within its harsh confines. The film grows more ominous and violent in tone until its terrifying final minutes, where Charles gives in to the nonsensical and unpredictable brutality of life.
User Review - 10/10 by Matthew SClaude Chabrol's deceptively simple story of two very different cousins is not so powerful because of the plot -- which packs a feeling of Hitchcock in the most passive of ways. The power of this film is the artistic manner in which we see (and feel) the film unfold. There is always a bit of debate regarding if this or Truffaut actually made the first of La Nouvelle Vague films. In the end, that doesn't matter. At it's time, no one had seen a move this realistic and oddly provocative. It still carries an odd sense of "new-ness" about it. The clash of a country mouse and his hipster cousin is as much a societal critique as it is an aggressive bit of dark humor manipulation of cinema. There will only ever be one Claude Chabrol. This may not be his finest film, but it manages to capture almost all of the elements that make him a truly film genius.
User Review - 8/10 by Art SWhen one studious cousin moves from the provinces to Paris, he is treated to some late 50s bohemian decadence by the other playboy cousin (and the long party scenes are handled surprisingly well here by Claude Chabrol). This is more than a good meets evil story (although that is part of it) because there is also some desire for transference (or wish fulfillment) on the part of both cousins and the result of their sustained contact is unpredictable. As with many of the early New Wave films, there is an exuberant freshness here (even as tension and loathing mount).
User Review - 8/10 by Michael DLes Cousins is one of the more emotionally accessible French New Wave films I've seen. The simple story is brilliantly laden with a state of disenchantment towards an infinitely decadent way of life engulfing the innocence, as symbolized by the relationship between the two polar opposites Paul and Charlies. The tragic ending also turns out to be quite poignant.
User Review - 8/10 by Augustine HThere seems to be some character parallelism in Chabrol's first films given the cast decisions he made. I'll use Le Beau Serge (1958), the director's debut, as a comparison in this case: - Gérard Blain, Serge, is now the urbane cousin Charles, who seems to cope with the lifestyle of a decadent society much better than his cousin, Paul. - Jean-Claude Brialy, François, is now Paul, the honest man moving to Paris seeking to study law and looking forward to having a healthier, stable relationship. - Juliette Mayniel, Yvonne, is Yvonne once again, maybe reflecting that the female condition has stayed the same in some women characters, but not all. The trouble ensues when Florence, the woman that makes Charles fall in love, is one of Paul's acquaintances. How will he react? Well, fuck, I'll be damned if he didn't fucking react!!!! Now, I do want to point out that Les Cousins is the darkest film I have seen not only in the entire French New Wave, but also during the entire decade, and that includes Rudolph Maté's D.O.A. (1950). Chabrol's new drama is often called a "somophore effort", but that barely scratches the surface. It is a no-holds-barred depiction of the decay of the bourgeois class in its drunkard banalities and superficial intellectualisms displayed in poetry, art, music and theater. Although it remains true that we see how two contrasting personalities of different backgrounds and ambitions react when they meet each other, it is also about how the absorbing tendencies of a new social class increasingly disinterested in moral is powerful enough to make join others regardless of their origins. This new class seems to be more influential over all people than the other way around. This is where Paul comes into play. To begin with, his performance is just fucking spectacular, completely out of this world. He is a dangerous iconoclast with a cultured mind but turned upside down, surrounding himself of people who share the same (or similar) of his idealized fundamentalisms. Sex, alcohol and power are in his mind, in his life and in his speech. Gérard Blain gives life to Paul with the enthusiasm (and screams) of the most renowned Japanese actors, providing a true feeling of anarchy. He outdoes everybody else. If the film's increasing disorder had been even more daring, with the delivery and execution matching the pessimistic darkness embracing it all, maybe I would have raised the rating by a full star. This is one sadistic show, scary as shit, which didn't push the envelope hard enough, even if this is the 50s we are still talking about. Still, the execution remains brilliant, even if one has to wait for it, featuring wonderful pieces of orchestrated anarchy and interesting moments during the party scenes (especially the first), including one candle-lit recital of an epic German poem by Paul, which gets interrupted, predating a very similar occurrence in Fellini's La Dolce Vita (1960). HUGE SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THE REVIEW UNTIL THE SCORE /100 - - - - - - - - - - Maybe I'm the only one, but this film was scary as hell. The film had no aim, but the message was consistently delivered. The whole anarchy had a point. I'm also terrified by the film's closure, which, even if I have not come to a resolution about its meaning yet, I know that it is depressing as shit: Paul gets away with everything!!! He conquers Florence with an extreme mental and physical macabre manipulation, and with the aid of Marc, the man living in Paul's Flat in an extremely bizarre, partially intellectualist, disturbingly abusive and quasi-homosexual relationship. The horrible parties being held in Paul's flat do hamper Charles' study for his law exam, which he fails. He unfairly fails the exam, loses his woman, is put against almost everybody, is uncapable of adapting to this decaying lifestyle, and fucking DIES! No matter how much negative influence or harm he received from Paul, the moment in which he decided to play with chance to determine Paul's final fate with a gun, it backfires against him! One single mistake costs the life of the "innocent" one! Charles is an object of a very sophisticated torture from beginning to end. I see this as a shockingly reflection of real life as these lifestyle tendencies have found their way into our lives, taking over everything, including the quality of the way we live. What a daring movie. Chabrol can be one asphyxiating bastard. - - - - - - - - - - 85/100

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