Les Diaboliques

Year: 1955
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenplay: Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, based on the novel Celle qui n'etait plus by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac
Starring: Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel
Running Time: 107 minutes
Genre: Crime, thriller, horror,

Summary: At a second-rate boy's boarding school, the brutal and cruel headmaster Michel DeLasalle (Meurisse) is married to the frail Christina (Clouzot), a teacher at the school who has a weak heart, but makes no secret of his affair with the pragamtic and strong-minded Nicole Horner (Signoret), who is also a teacher at the school. Sick of DeLasalle's ill-treatment of them both, Christina and Nicole plot to murder him. The murder plot is carried out and the body disposed of in the schools disused scum and dirt covered swimming pool. However, the body goes missing and a succession of bizarre and disturbing events begin to plague Christina and Nicole. Add to that they are being questioned by a retired police detective turned private investigator, Alfred Fichet (Varnel), who appears to know a lot more than he is letting on.

Opinions: This film is frequently described as "Hitchcockian", and certainly it bears many of the hallmarks of the work of Alfred Hitchcock, such as the blending of humour and horror. In fact, some believe that Hitchcock missed out on the rights to the Boileau and Narcejac novel by only a few hours, with Clouzot getting to the authors first. Hitchcock would later adapt Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac's 1954 novel D'Entre des Mortes as the classic 1958 film Vertigo.
The movie has a complex storyline and a startling conclusion. It features great performances from the cast and conjures up a powerfully misanthropic atmosphere of decay and cruelty, with repeated shots of murky water and striking gothic imagery. However the darkness is lightened by plenty of humour. The end credits of the film feature an "anti-spoiler" warning asking the audience not to be "diabolical" and reveal the movie's twists to their friends.
It is a powerful, entertaining and suspenseful piece of work that has influenced many subsequent films, including Hitchock's 1962 film Psycho. In fact Robert Bloch, the author of the original novel Psycho, listed Les Diaboliques as his favourite horror film of all time.
However the film is more mystery and suspense than horror and will certainly appeal to anyone who enjoys a good mystery and thriller.
The film was remade in 1996 as Diaboliques starring Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani.



Vera Clouzot and Simone Signoret are in on a plot in Les Diaboliques

Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno

Year: 2009
Directors: Serge Bromberg and Ruxana Medrea
Screenplay: Serge Bromberg
Starring: Romy Schneider, Berenice Bejo, Serge Reggiani, Jacques Gamblin
Running Time: 102 minutes
Genre: Documentary, film-making

Summary: Director Serge Bromberg was once trapped in a stalled elevator for two hours with a woman. They got chatting and Bromberg discovered that he was speaking to Ines de Gonzalez, who was the second wife of legendary French film director Henri-Georges Clouzot. She revealed to him the existence of 185 film cans (15 hours worth of footage) from her late husband's uncompleted 1964 film L'Enfer (Inferno). Bromberg persuaded her to allow him to use the footage to make a documentary which partially tells the story of Inferno, about a man (Reggiani) whose obsessive jealousy of his wife Schnieder causes him to suffer bizarre hallucinations. The documentary also tells the story of the making of the film and the reasons why it was abandoned.

Opinions: The film consists of footage shot for Inferno, test footage for the film, talking-head interviews with some of the crew who worked on it, and two contemporary actors (Berenice Bejo in the Romy Schneider role and Jacques Gamblin in the Serge Reggiani part) performing scenes from the script on a blank stage. From what is shown in the film, it appears as if Inferno would have been a very experimental movie. Clouzot shot endless reels of test footage where he encouraged his crew to experiment as much as possible with visual and sound effects in the hope of creating something truly unique. In that he would probably have been successful, because some of the footage shown is really amazing and fascinatingly strange. Of course there is no way to tell what the film could have been. The documentary gives a detailed account of the production of the film and it's eventual cancellation and is a very interesting view into just ho difficult film production can be and how easy it is for things to just fall apart.
The film is entertaining and accessible. It's a must-see for fans of French cinema, of course, as well as aspiring film-makers but general movie fans will probably enjoy it as well, especially if you're interested in what goes on behind the scenes of movies.
Henri-Georges Clouzot's script was eventually made into the 1994 film L'Enfer, directed by Claude Chabrol.



The drinks are on Romy Schneider in Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno

Quai des Orfevres

Year: 1947
Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenplay: Henri-Georges Clouzot and Jean Ferry, based on the novel Self-Defense by Stanislas-Andre Steeman
Starring: Louis Jouvet, Suzy Delair, Bernard Blier, Simone Renant
Running Time: 106 minutes
Genre: Crime, thriller, police procedural, film noir

Summary: Paris, December 1946: Jenny Lamour (Delair) is a flirtatious nightclub singer and is married to piano player Maurice Martineau (Blier), who is very jealous of her. Believing that she is having an affair with Brignon (Charles Dullin), a lecherous old producer who Jenny wants to help advance her career, Maurice threatens to kill him. Later, Maurice discovers that Jenny has arranged a secret rendezvous with Brignon and so he takes his gun and goes to confront them. However, when he arrives Jenny is not there and Brignon is dead. Cynical Inspector Antoine (Jouvet) is put in charge of the police investigation into Brignon's death and Maurice is his prime suspect.

Opinions: This film marked Heri-Georges Clouzot's return to film after four years absence, after he was banned from film-making as a result of his controversial 1943 film Le corbeau (which was accused of being anti-French propaganda) and his involvment with German-owned Continental Films. Clouzot had read the Belgian murder-mystery novel Self-Defense by Stanislas-Andre Steeman during the Occupation, but had forgotten most of it when the time came to write the script and found that the novel was out of print, so he wrote to Steeman to obtain a copy of the book, and proceeded to write the script based on co-writer Jean Ferry's memory of the story. By the time the book arrived, the script had been written and was very different to the book. On it's release in France, the film was a huge hit with both audiences and critics. It is a well-paced and involving thriller, with plenty of surprises. For the first half hour or so it plays as a kind of backstage comedy-drama and darkens several shades once the mystery elements take hold. The film really comes into it's own when the hapless Maurice finds himself drawn into a Kafkaesque nightmare as he becomes the prime suspect. The acting is great, especially from Louis Jouvet as the dryly-humourous Inspector with a grim view of human nature. It's also stylishly photographed in crisp black and white and depicts a world teeming with life and incident.
The title refers to the address of the police headquarters in Paris.
If you get the chance it is definitely worth checking out for fans crime stories and thrillers.



Simone Renant is under investigation from Louis Jouvet in Quai des Orfevres