welsholiver

I'm a massive fan of Alfred Hitchcock. For a long time my favourite films were Hitchcock's Psycho and Rear Window. I first heard about Diabolique when Hitchcock had mentioned it in his interview with Dick Cavett, where he said that a man wrote to him: "Sir, After seeing 'Diabolique,' my daughter was afraid to take a bath. Now she has seen your 'Psycho' and is afraid to take a shower. What should I do with her?" Hitchcock replied: "Send her to the dry cleaners."

That was where I had first heard of it. Then I saw online, some websites said that Diabolique may have even inspired Hitchcock for Psycho. That intrigued me even more. Then I saw Robert Bloch, the author of the Psycho novel, had said that Diabolique was his favourite horror film of all time. Then I knew I had to see Diabolique.

There was one 'problem.' Diabolique was in French with subtitles. I had never seen a foreign film with subtitles before, so I resisted it. And then I think I saw on the BFI website, Stephen King said one of his favourite movies was Diabolique, and somewhere else I think he said the ending of Diabolique was the scariest movie scene he had ever watched.

Finally, I got around to watching Diabolique. My first foreign film. Let me just say, absolutely brilliant. The ending especially really knocks it out of the park, such brilliance! If you are resisting foreign films because of subtitles, you are missing out on such great cinema. Since I first watched Diabolique, I watched it again a few weeks later. Still absolutely brilliant. It's not like The Sixth Sense where it's not worth watching multiple times - Diabolique was terrific the second time too. In fact I enjoyed it so much that I bought a whole book analysis on the film ('Les Diaboliques' by Susan Hayward), where it goes into detail some hidden messages Henri-Georges Clouzot possibly added in the film, such as a possible war subtext. It also goes into detail the making of the film. This book made me appreciate the film even more, and now I can say for sure that Diabolique is my favourite movie of all time. Terrific acting (especially from Simone Signoret as the icy-blonde Nicole), terrific direction from Clouzot, terrific cinematography, terrific plot, terrific everything! It's an absolute must-watch, especially if you're a fan of Hitchcock's work. In my opinion, I really think Clouzot did Hitchcock better than Hitchcock himself.

C'est magnifique... et diabolique! 10/10.

This movie made me genuinely laugh and the acting is fantastic, but the effects can be quite cheesy and outdated (although alright for 1976). I like this version better than the remake.

It's alright, but it also just feels like a cliche teen movie.