Frequently cited as the first New Wave film, Le Beau Serge was Chabrol’s bracing, unembellished induction into filmmaking featuring a cast of unknowns – many of them non-professional actors – and set in a bleak, provincial French village. After a serious illness, François has returned from Paris to convalesce in his hometown. As soon as his old friend walks obliviously past him in a drunken stupor, François makes it his mission to rescue Serge from the plague of this hardscrabble existence. Quickly upsetting the village’s static status quo, the righteous, intellectual François is drawn into its incestuously vicious circles. By the time the defining moment finally approaches, he risks becoming Serge’s martyr rather than savior. – BG