Diabolique

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.

Are you alone? good. Have you turned off the lights? good.Is there a storm brewing in that dark foreboding sky?Excellent. Do you like brilliant black and white movies? Wonderful.Now, sit back and enjoy the best of the best. This is quite simply the best psychological thriller ever made.Often imitated but never bettered. If you have a problem with subtitled films then don't worry because you will understand this film without reading them. If you want slash and gore, go elsewhere.If you want sophisticated entertainment,you've come to the right place.Georges Cluzot's finest work is a thing of beauty as is his wife Vera, who stars opposite Simone Signoret as the schoolmaster's wife.From the very start it is very clear that all is not as it seems. But why? and who? What is the terrible secret of the swimming pool and later on, the bathtub? As the tension builds to an unbearable climax, we sit and hide behind our hands, peering through the gaps in our fingers.Oh my God!! it can't be!.....it is! Do not confuse this movie with the disgraceful remake starring Sharon Stone. All copies of that disaster should be burned. Watch this movie if you are a serious film buff. Rent something else if you have the attention span of a goldfish.Brilliant. 10/10

'Les diaboliques' made in 1955 by Henri-Georges Clouzot ends with an explicit request from the viewers of not sharing the plot and especially the end of the film. Of course, I will honor this request. I will say, however, that it's a long time since I had the pleasure of seeing a smart thriller like this. It's a film that shows its age in the way it's filmed and acted, but that does not bother at all, but on the contrary, like the best alcohols, it seems to be better appreciated now, in the perspective of the 64 years that have passed since its launching on screens.

I wonder why Clouzot 's name is not mentioned in the dialogue book between Truffaut and Hitchcock. Truffaut definitely knew this movie, and I would be amazed if Hitchcock did not know about it as well. I dare to fantasize that if this clever scenario (based on a novel) with characters well-characterized psychologically, with the story taking place in two closed spaces (a boarding school and a province house) linked one to the other by a journey with the car, with its suspense and permanent changes of situations and evolution of the characters that keep the audience's interest constant, Hitchcock the master of suspense would not have refused the opportunity to make this film.

Simone Signoret achieves in 'Les diaboliques' one of the most memorable roles of her career. There are many contrasts between the character played by her and the one acted by Véra Clouzot. Strong woman vs. weak woman. Mistress vs. wife. The apparent mismatch is accentuated by the fragility of the wife, in a role where a tragic real life coincidence involved the death of the actress, wife of director Clouzot, a few years after the film was made. Paul Meurisse in the role of the despicable school director is so credible that many of the spectators would like to cross the screen to kill him with their own hands. It is worth watching also each of the secondary roles, which offer the opportunity of unique creations, original typologies mostly in the comic register , in the best tradition of the classic French film and theater. Among them you will find with more than a decade in advance the character that inspired the creators of Inspector Columbo.All these make of 'Les diaboliques' a jewel of the classic French cinema and of the psychological thriller genre of all times.

"Les Diaboliques" has one of the best plots you will ever find in any mystery or suspense thriller. The excellent directing, acting, and writing combine with the story itself to make it a memorable experience.

If you enjoy quality mysteries or thrillers, you will almost certainly enjoy this one - and if you have not seen it yet, you might just want to buy or rent it now, before you read any more reviews. This comment will avoid any discussion at all of the actual plot itself, because the less you know in advance, the more you will enjoy it. The few implausible elements in the story do not detract at all from the enjoyment.

A great plot does not all by itself make a good movie, and everything works especially well here because of the expert pacing by director Henri-Georges Clouzot and good, mostly understated acting by the main actors. We are drawn into their world very nicely. Everything about the characters and events is built up perfectly, to give the brilliant climax its full effect. Once again, see it before you find out any more.

Even if you do not normally watch black-and-white films or foreign movies (this is in French), if you enjoy thrillers, watch "Les Diaboliques" as soon as you have the chance.