Les salauds vont en enfer

I have a problem watching Robert Hossein as a director as much as I do as an actor. I sense an obsession with evil in man that I find unhealthily Manichean. ' Les Salauds vont en Enfer ' is a particularly nasty example and I believe Hossein's debut as a director. The first part takes place in a real hell of a prison and guillotine executions are somehow seen as normal. This first part indeed shows the evil that society only perpetuates by the cruellest of punishments. In the second part two escaped prisoners escape to a landscape that provides another hell of its own, and in between this ' natural ' punishment a 17 year old played by Marina Vlady seeks revenge. Why she seeks it is not only due to their desire for her, but something else which would be a spoiler. Both Serge Reggiani and Henri Vidal do their best with one-dimensional roles, and there is a gloating pleasure in the direction watching suffering. There is not a glimmer of hope anywhere in this scenario, and I agree with the reviewer that the music was totally wrong for the film. Visually there are a few arresting images, but this is not enough for the whole cinematic misery of it all. Hell to watch.