Chabrol's 'Merci Pour le Chocolat' named best French film

PARIS (Reuters) -- Veteran French suspense director Claude Chabrol has won the country's film of the year prize for his latest film, "Merci Pour le Chocolat" (Nightcap), organizers announced Tuesday.

The prestigious Prix Louis-Delluc, founded in 1937, went to Chabrol for the first time. The prize is named after the critic-turned-filmmaker Delluc (1890-1924), whose writings laid the groundwork for the appreciation of film as an art form.

"Nightcap," Chabrol's 52nd film and his sixth with Isabelle Huppert, has attracted 800,000 admissions in France since its October 23 release. A delectably sardonic, low-key thriller set in Lausanne, it stars Huppert as a Swiss chocolate fortune heiress who interferes in the lives of her well-to-do entourage.

The award committee, an elite group of critics who serve for life, gave its second annual best first-film nod to Laurent Cantet's "Human Resources," a wrenching tale of a college-educated man forced to make productivity changes at the factory where his working-class father toils.

Other nominated films were "Les Blessures Assassines" (Murderous Maids), by Jean-Pierre Denis; "Esther Kahn," by Arnaud Desplechin; "Harry, un Ami qui Vous Veut du Bien" (With a Friend Like Harry ...), by Dominik Moll; and Alain Cavalier's "Vies."

Copyright 2000 Reuters. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

N.Y. film critics name 'Traffic' year's best film
December 13, 2000

See related sites about MOVIES

Note: Pages will open in a new browser window

External sites are not endorsed by CNN Interactive.