272. Les Diaboliques (1954)

Directed By Henri-Georges Clouzot


Synopsis

I am sorry but the film requests that I do not tell the ending, so... the wife of an abusive asshole and his mistress decide to kill him.

Review

Clouzot is a great director of suspense, never for the faint-hearted but with this film he stole the crown from Hitchcock which would get it back with Psycho, even if the debates continue to this day about which is the best film. Truth is, without Les Diaboliques, Psycho would be a very different film indeed.

Clouzot did it before with Salarie de la Peur using trucks and nitroglycerine and here he does it even better not with a whodunit, but with a whatthefuckishappeningit. A great film indeed and one which doesn't let you go, with a tremendous pacing building up to one of the best endings in the history of cinema.

One minor problem is that the film has served as inspiration for so many directors that you might possibly get the ending before the end of the film (my wife did, I didn't, well maybe I would have if she didn't tell me before I figured it out!) but still the twists come along. Amazing.

Final Grade

10/10

Trivia

From Wikipedia:

The film created a sensation on its original release. It has often been likened to the films of Alfred Hitchcock in that it is still creepy even when one has seen it and knows the ending. (Many sources say that Alfred Hitchcock missed out on purchasing the rights to the Boileau and Narcejac novel by just a few hours, Clouzot getting to the authors first.) The end credit contains an early example of an "anti-spoiler message", requesting the audience not to disclose the plot to others who have not seen the film.

Trailer: