Diabolique (Criterion Collection Spine #35)
by Henri-Georges Clouzot
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DVD Cover Information
Actor: Charles Vanel, Jean Brochard, Paul Meurisse, Simone Signoret, V?ra ClouzotDirector: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Brand: Image Entertainment
Producer: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Writer: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Writer: Fr?d?ric Grendel
Writer: J?r?me G?ronimi
Writer: Pierre Boileau
Writer: Ren? Masson
Writer: Thomas Narcejac
DVD: Region Code 1
Audio: French (Original Language), Dolby Digital 1.0; English (Subtitled)
Format: Black & White, Color, DVD-Video, NTSC, Subtitled
Picture Format: Academy Ratio, 1.33:1
Running Time: 116 minutes
DVD Release Date: 1999-01-26
Audience Rating: Unrated
Studio: Criterion
Movie Reviews of Diabolique (Criterion Collection Spine #35)
Movie Review: Masterpiece of Suspense 50 Years Old and Still Sets the Nerves on Edge.
Summary: 5 Stars
"Diabolique" (Les diaboliques) is a masterpiece of suspense made in perhaps the most masterful decade of suspenseful cinema, the 1950s. While Alfred Hitchcock's career was at its peak, French director Henri-Georges Clouzot acquired the rights to the novel "Celle que n'?tait plus" (She Who Was No More) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac and, in 1955, created "Diabolique". A country boarding school in France hosts the uneasy relationship between sadistic principal Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse), his wealthy South American wife Christina (V?ra Clouzot), and his bold mistress Nicole (Simone Signoret). Unwilling to divorce her abusive husband for religious reasons, Christina consents to Nicole's plan to murder him. All goes well until the corpse goes missing.
"Diabolique" leaves the audience as uncertain as to what is going on as the characters who are caught up in it. Christina is fearful of sin, but she can no longer tolerate her husband's beatings and humiliation. Nicole is an unlikely ally who has the necessary cool and calculating head to get away with murder. But when the unexpected happens, even the audience is unsure of Michel is really dead. Christina's nerves are frazzled. To make matters worse, a creepy private detective insists upon helping her find her missing husband. We have no idea what he might be up to, but it doesn't look good. This kind of uncertainty creates the sense of chaos that leaves Christina and Nicole panicked and the audience on edge too. In French with optional English subtitles.
The DVD (Criterion Collection 1999): The print is good but does have some white specks. Sound is good. The subtitles are white on a black-and-white film, which causes some strain in reading them. Yellow subtitles would have been better. Oddly, Michel's name is subtitled as "Miguel" at the beginning of the film and is corrected later. There are no bonus features.
Summary of Diabolique (Criterion Collection Spine #35)
An acknowledged influence on Psycho, Henri-Georges Clouzot's horror classic is the story of a sadistic headmaster who brutalizes his fragile wife and his headstrong mistress. The two women murder him and dump his body in a swimming pool; when the pool is drained, no corpse is found. Criterion presents Diabolique in a new digital transfer.Legend has it that Henri-Georges Clouzot beat out Alfred Hitchcock to secure the rights to this novel, which proved to be a veritable blueprint for an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery, and suspense. V?ra Clouzot plays the sickly wife of a callous headmaster of a provincial boarding school going to seed, and the commanding Simone Signoret is the headmaster's mistreated mistress. Together they plot and carry out his murder, a brutal drowning that director Clouzot documents in chilly detail, but the corpse disappears, and a nosy detective starts sniffing around the grounds as threatening notes taunt the women. Clouzot's thriller is as precise and accomplished a work as anything in Hitchcock's canon, a film of grueling suspense and startling shocks in an overcast, gray world of decay, but his icy manipulations lack the human dimension and emotional resonance of the master of suspense. The film has been accused of being misanthropic by many critics, and Clouzot's attitude toward his characters is bitter at best, contemptuous at worst. The viewer is left on the outside looking in, but the razor precision and terrifying twists deliver a sleek, bleak spectacle worthy of attention. --Sean Axmaker
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