Le Creux de la Vague: Authorship, Adaptation and Sexuality in Les Godelureaux (1961)

Abstract

Les Godelureaux (directed by Claude Chabrol, 1961) was one of the least successful films of the French New Wave. Almost universally derided by critics, the film did poorly at the box office and was seen to signal the decline or death of the Nouvelle Vague. Adapted from a novel by Éric Ollivier, the film alters its narrative in order to resemble other New Wave films, especially Les Cousins (Chabrol, 1959). But in doing so it also elides an intriguing sexual tension and a galvanising homophobia at the heart of the novel. This article considers various authorial influences over Les Godelureaux (Chabrol and Ollivier, but also Paul Gégauff and Jean-Claude Brialy) in order to investigate how the film attained the form that it did, and why this may have been responsible for its failure.