Among the directors of the Nouvelle Vague, Claude Chabrol is the most exuberant and unpredictable. His case is unprecedented, and the interest he provokes is almost identified with a work that is pluralistic in all its parameters: thematically, aesthetically, philosophically, sociologically.

The main element of his work may be inequality; that is, a creative process that is not linear and contains an element of surprise. (. . .) In his fifty-plus films, his "gluttony" to tell - as effectively as possible - small, human stories, far removed from the dictates of "fashion," is evident.

All scholars of his work agree that Chabrol is a contemporary filmmaker without being subservient to the "spirit of the times." He is, that is to say, "political" when the political perspective is considered outdated; "feminist," when feminism is ridiculed. (. . .)

[Excerpt from the preface text]