Director: Claude Chabrol
Year Released: 1959
Rating: 3.0
Sickly young Francois goes back home after a stay in a Swiss hospital only to find his good friend Serge and the people of his village degenerating into miserable failures. Brings to mind the title of the Thomas Wolfe work You Can't Go Home Again - Serge, a spiteful, moody alcoholic, and his wife are experiencing problems domestically (his wife's first child was a "Mongoloid"), and the two of them take out their hardships on Francois, who appears like a symbol of promise among all the downtrodden citizens. A captivating, sad portrait of despair, loneliness and wasted promise, Chabrol's smooth approach keeps you interested even when the picture veers in strange directions - the 'revelations' that come out regarding the 'father' figure are downright awkward and played a little too strongly, and all the melodramatic altercations that develop are out of place. This is said to be the first film of the French New Wave, and though Chabrol's first picture, hardly his worst.
