SYNOPSIS: Gérard Blain and Jean - Claude Brialy star in the first of their collaborations with the great Claude Chabrol. The director's masterful feature debut - ironic, funny, unsparing - is a revelation: another of that rare breed of film where the dusty formula might be used in full sincerity: Le Beau Serge marks the beginning of " the Chabrol touch. "

In this first feature film of the French New Wave, one year before Truffaut's The Four Hundred Blows, the dandyish François (Brialy, of Godard's A Woman Is a Woman, Rohmer's Claire's Knee, and countless other cornerstones of 20th - century French cinema) takes a holiday from the city to his home village of Sardent, where he reconnects with his old chum Serge (Blain), now a besotted and hopeless alcoholic, and sly duplicitous carnal Marie (Bernadette Lafont). A grave triangle forms, and a tragic slide ensues.

From Le Beau Serge onward up to his final film Bellamy in 2009, the revered Chabrol would come to leave a significant and lasting impression upon the French cinema - frequently with great commercial success. It is with great pride that we present Le Beau Serge , the kickstart of the Nouvelle Vague and of Chabrol's enormous body of work, on Blu - ray and DVD in the UK for the first time.

SPECIAL DVD EDITION:

Gorgeous new Gaumont restoration of the film in its original aspect ratio
New and improved English subtitles
Original theatrical trailer
A 56 - minute documentary about the making of the film
L' Avarice [ Avarice] , Chabrol's 1962 short film
A lengthy booklet with a new and exclusive essay by critic Emmanuel Burdeau; excerpts of interviews and writing by Chabrol; and more.

REVIEWS: " It presents a bleak, beautifully observed picture of provincial life" - Time Out

" Le Beau Serge received overwhelming critical approval of its use of non-professional actors, raw black-and-white photography (masterfully executed by Henri Decae), and personal vision. " - TV Guide's Movie Guide