[Short Film] Le Coup du Berger (1956🇫🇷)
Original Title: LE COUP DU BERGER (1956, France, 28 minutes)
● Screenplay: Claude Chabrol
● Director: Jacques Rivette
● Cast: Virginie Vitry, Étienne Loinod (Jacques Doniol-Valcroze), Jean-Claude Brialy, Anne Do
As for home media, it is included as a bonus on the DVD of "Le Beau Serge" released by IVC.
Like "Le Beau Serge," it features Jean-Claude Brialy, but the main character is Claire, played by Virginie Vitry.
This actress is cute, including her costumes.
The story is about Claire receiving a fur coat from her lover Claude (Brialy) and trying to figure out how to make it her own without her husband noticing.
For some reason, Claude gives her the fur coat while citing the story of the Jivaro people of South America and their shrunken heads, claiming it is a token of their love.
Since she would be suspected if she said she "bought it herself," the answer to how to obtain it is to leave it at a station cloakroom.
She wants to pretend she found the claim ticket in a taxi and that she went to pick it up out of curiosity, only to accidentally end up with it.
Claire is cute as she persists in trying to get her husband to go pick it up instead of going herself.
She succeeds in getting her husband to go. However, the bag he brings back contains a cheap, different coat.
Puzzled that something is wrong, Claire goes to Claude's apartment.
After some back and forth there, the two end up breaking up, saying it's over.
After that, there is a house party scene where a young Truffaut and Godard appear. By the way, a young Godard looks like Woody Allen.
Then, seeing one of the guests wearing the fur coat, Claire realizes everything.
That her husband had swapped the contents of the bag. That he had given that coat to that woman. And that she cannot say anything because if she pursues the matter, her own affair will be exposed... and that is where the film ends.
The screenplay is by Chabrol and the director is Rivette. The assistant director is Jean-Marie Straub, the cast includes Brialy and Jacques Doniol-Valcroze of "L'Eau à la bouche", with cameos by Godard and Truffaut. All the big names of the French New Wave are gathered in this small piece.
It's like the anecdote about how Joy Division's Barney and Hooky, Morrissey, Tony Wilson, Howard Devoto, and Mark E. Smith were all at the Sex Pistols' concert in Manchester.
Setting aside the historical topic of it being a precursor to the New Wave, the story itself is simply well-crafted, and it is wonderful enough to watch as a short film.