Diabolique-1955
Director Henri-Georges Clouzot
Starring Simone Signoret, Vera Clouzot, Paul Meuisse
Scott’s Review #878
Reviewed March 16, 2019
Grade: A
Diabolique (1955) is a masterful French thriller that is as compelling as frightening and offers insurmountable influence in years to come.
Shamefully remade and Americanized in 1996 starring Sharon Stone, a waste of time if you ask me, the original is the one to discover.
With a perfect blend of psychological intrigue, never-ending suspense, and even a good mix of horror that Hitchcock would find impressive (more about him later), the film is brilliant in its pacing and frequent twists and turns.
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Les Diaboliques is set in a crumbling boarding school in the metropolis of Paris. Sadistic headmaster Michel Delassalle (Paul Meuisse) runs a tight ship but works for his Venezuelan wife, Christina (Vera Clouzot), who owns the school.
Michel is immersed in a torrid affair with schoolteacher, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret) and regularly abuses both women as well as his students. The two women embark on a plot to kill Michel, but when they succeed in their plan, Michel’s body goes missing.
The women panic.
In a few fun trivia tidbits, director Clouzot, right after finishing Wages of Fear (1953), optioned the screenplay rights, preventing Hitchcock from making the film. This movie helped inspire Hitchcock’s Psycho (1960).
Robert Bloch himself, the author of the novel version of Psycho, has stated in an interview that his all-time favorite horror film is Diabolique. If the film displays nuances incorporated in Psycho, this is undoubtedly the reason.
Clouzot also directs his wife Vera in the prominent role of Christina.
The brilliance is it could have been made by Hitchcock since the entire experience has his stamp and influence even though his best works lay ahead of him in 1955.
Still, from the Gothic mood to the “can’t believe your eyes” twisted, blood-curdling ending, the director immediately comes to mind every time I watch the film. The “shock” ending only exceeds expectations with a fantastic delivery.
The film takes an unusual stance on the dynamic between the two women, Christina and Nicole. Rather than take a traditional route and make the women rivals for the man’s affections, Clouzot makes the pair co-conspirators.
This only deepens their relationship as events unfold and take a darker and more dire turn.
They rely on each other as teammates rather than despise each other over their love for another man. Intelligently, they spend their energy on making sure the insipid man gets his just comeuppance for his dirty deeds.
Nicole leads Christina in the direction she needs to go.
The black and white cinematography is highly influential to the mood. With each unexpected twist or scene of peril, the lighting is perfect in radiating the suspense. The camera juxtaposes the frequent glowing of the white against the dark black exuding a frightening, ghost-like presentation.
The entire setting of the school is laden with dark corners that provide good elements of foreboding and sinister moments to come.
As the women become more and more unnerved by the limitless possibilities that the missing body presents, many questions are asked but are impossible to answer. “Where is the body?”, “Could Michel be alive?”, “If he is alive is he hell-bent on revenge?” The viewer will also ask these questions throughout most of the final half.
When an unknown person begins to call the women the questions multiply.
Clouzet uses frequent shots of objects to enhance the tension even further. Closeups of a dripping bathtub, a typewriter with a man’s hat and gloves, a woman’s feet as she removes her shoes, and a woman running in terror through the school.
These facets only enhance the overall experience as the suspense and the terror begin to mount.
Diabolique (1955) is considered one of the greatest thrillers of all time and I concur mightily with this assessment. A French version of Psycho (1960), that combines an acclaimed director’s ingenious subtle ideas into a giant web of delicious filmmaking.
The viewer will never see the surprise ending coming even if they think they have the plot figured out. This point alone is reason enough to see the film realize its greatness.