Chabrol, Claude (1930- ), French film director and screenwriter, known for his direction of actors in intense if enigmatic studies of dominance, dependency, and shifts of power within close relationships. Born in Paris, Chabrol first came to prominence as a critic, collaborating with Eric Rohmer on Hitchcock (Paris, 1957), which explored themes of Catholic morality and guilt in the great director's work, then for an attack in the magazine Cahiers du Cinéma (1959) on Stanley Kramer's filmic exploration of “big themes”.

Chabrol's Le Beau Serge (1959; Bitter Reunion) was the first nouvelle vague (New Wave) feature, and it was quickly followed by Les Cousins (1959) and A Double Tour (1959; Léda/Web of Passion). Les Bonnes Femmes and Les Godelureaux (both 1960), L'Oeil du Malin (The Third Lover), Landru, and Ophélia (all 1962) came shortly afterwards—that is, eight major films, many from his own scripts, and including much of his best work, in just three years. Subsequently, Chabrol was to relapse into genre films between major achievements such as Les Biches (The Does) and La Femme Infidèle (The Unfaithful Wife), both 1968, Le Boucher (The Butcher) and La Rupture (The Breakup), both 1970, Violette Nozière (1977), and Une Affaire des Femmes (1988). For many years his films regularly starred Stéphane Audran, then his wife. In Violette Nozière she appeared opposite Isabelle Huppert, who went on to star in both Une Affaire des Femmes and Chabrol's 1995 film, the Ruth Rendell adaptation La Cérémonie (A Judgement in Stone). This was regarded by admirers of both the director and the actress as a return to form after the disappointment of Madame Bovary (1991), from the Gustave Flaubert novel.

Chabrol’s output continues to be prolific, sometimes resulting in uninspired films such as Au Coeur du Mensonge (1999; The Colour of Lies); but more often in intriguing, if flawed, thrillers like Rien Ne Va Plus (1997) and Merci Pour Le Chocolat (2000). His subsequent films are La Fleur du Mal (2003; The Flower of Evil), about the hypocrisy of a provincial bourgeois family; another Rendell adaptation, La Demoiselle d'Honneur (2004; The Bridesmaid); and L'Ivresse du Pouvoir (2006; Comedy of Power), in which a judge (Huppert) investigates a corruption scandal reminiscent of France’s famous “Elf affair”.