I diabolici

The odds against writing and directing two all-time classic thrillers/suspensers back to back must be fairly remote, featuring your wife in both remoter still, and starring Yves Montand in the first (The Wages Of Fear, in case there are any first-time buyers out there) and his wife, Simone Signoret in the second, astronomical. Say hello - and tip your hat while you're about it - to Henri-George Clouzot who pulled off this double whammy with ease. Clouzot made only a handful of films but those he did make were worth seeing, from Le Corbeau thru L'Assassin habite du 21 thru Quai des Orfevres and up to Wages and this one. Again many previous commenters have set the scene and described the plot and most of them are more than positive in their praise. I can only endorse their opinions and raise a glass to all involved especially Paul Meurisse and Charles Vanel who tend to get lost in the shuffle. 9/10

DIABOLIQUE (Henri-Georges Clouzot - France 1955).

I must admit I found Clouzot's earlier WAGES OF FEAR(1953) slightly disappointing and therefor temporarily held back from watching any other films he made but how wrong I was! This much discussed classic was one of the most frightening and disturbing films I've ever seen. The music theme played during the opening credits with the organ and the singing schoolchildren still makes the hairs in my neck stand up, even at this very moment.

The story revolves around the tyrant schoolmaster Delasalle (Paul Meurisse) of a seedy boarding school, his wife (Vera Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret). An he maltreats them both, they decide to work together to murder him. They drown Delasalle in the bathtub and dump the corpse in the abandoned swimming pool next to the school. But then, eerie things start to happen. When the pool is drained and no body is found, the two women grow increasingly fearful that Delasalle is still alive. When subsequently his suit is returned from the dry-cleaners and the schoolchildren repeatedly testify they've seen Delasalle, they start to panic and the strange occurrences surrounding his supposed resurrection slowly drive them into insanity and complete paranoia.

Justifiably hailed as one of the most suspenseful films ever made and often compared to Hitchcock's work. Clouzot lacks the master's wit but as far as suspense goes, he is incomparable. Very much opposed to Hitchcock, this film - like most of his work - has a very cynical and misanthropic feel to it. Perhaps largely due to this very dark tone and Clouzot's excellent eye for detail, even today it still has the power to drive you right up the wall. And Simone Signoret, whom I've never (consciously) seen before in other films, greatly added to my admiration of this film. A sublime actress and an absolutely hypnotizing screen presence. The entire cast is terrific for that matter with Charles Vanel as inspector Fichet another standout.

Clouzot takes his time to build up the story very precisely but once the mysterious things start to happen every scene adds to an almost unbearable tension. You'll watch every facial expression and every detail on screen with increasing paranoia yourself, in order to understand what on earth could have happened. And the ending is so surprising that I wasn't quite sure anymore about the things I just saw, even right after the film's ending. A genuinely great movie that more than lives up to its status and has lost none of its impact over the last five decades.

Camera Obscura --- 10/10

And once you've watched them both, you'll know why. While Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" may have been dealing with extra thematic material beneath its horrific surface, providing additional dimensions that the French film didn't have, "Diabolique" (or "Les Diaboliques" as it's known in France) is a thriller whose atmosphere and sense of mystery equal that of the great Hitchcock classic. The same dark, threatening black and white cinematography and bizarre, macabre goings-on of "Psycho" meet their French counterpart in "Diabolique", much to the viewer's delight. And while "Psycho" gave the world perhaps the most memorable scene revolving around a shower, "Diabolique" presents the most memorable scene[s] connected with a bathtub. More outstanding than any other bathtub scenes, in my opinon, including the ones from "The Shining".

From the tension before the murder to the mysteries that arise afterwards, the suspense mounts to an eerie climax that remains one of the Cinema's most exciting, whether you predicted it or not. If you weren't expecting it, it will truly be a frightening and confusing (in a good way) surprise. If you successfully foretold it, it will satisfy your suspicions and still captivate your attention.

The only thing that seems sub-par about the film is the police detective's role in the incidents during the climax and after. You may wonder why he didn't arrive on the scene earlier, or whether he could have prevented certain events from occurring. It seems awkward that he shows up when he did and knows all about what just happened. One gets the idea that perhaps French Production Codes of some kind had an effect on the plot at this point, giving the ending a somewhat forced and artificial flavor.

The wife and the mistress of a headmaster pool their resources to scotch his wicked antics, pull the plug on his mathematics, but the corpse does a runner and tensions arise, as events unfold with increasing surprise, a basket case, a zombie face, a cracking French facade, what a spectacularly original and engrossing film to devise!

Les diaboliques is an unusually intense movie. I believe this is due to the well thought out choice of real locations and the masterful use of spatial entities and textures. Your memory really gets hooked on those things, and it gives the story a sense of reality that makes you feel uneasy.

Les diaboliques is as much a horror movie as it is a thriller. When I watch this I perceive an intense mouldy smell throughout. The crumbling boarding school where the main characters live and act is worse than any nightmare – even the swimming pool filled with murky water appears like a menacing abyss. The stifling crummyness is accentuated by the plot: School teachers sit at the sadistic principal's table in the refectory and have to force unspeakably ghastly meals down their throats (only one glass of wine is allowed). The second location is the principal's lover's apartment in a dead borough somewhere in no man's land. It's stuffy and utterly claustrophobic. The transfer between the two places is made with a "deux chevaux" station wagon – its characteristic back part of corrugated sheet metal once was a common feature in our parts of the world, as was the snarling sound of the deux chevaux‘s engine. In the corrugated iron "box" sits a creaky wicker crate, which on the way back from the lover's apartment contains evidence of the crime, wrapped in a checkered wax tablecloth. So you see shells within shells, not unlike one of those Russian wooden dolls. You don't know what you will find in the innermost until the end.