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| Diabolique (1955) | |
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| Tweet Topic Started: Feb 24 2008, 09:40 PM (277 Views) | |
| Laughing Gravy | Feb 24 2008, 09:40 PM Post #1 |
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The battered wife of a cruel school principal and the man's ex-mistress conspire to kill him. They succeed in the crime, except the corpse vanishes and strange things begin to happen. I've said several times that Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le Corbeau is one of my fave suspense films ever, and a few weeks ago I saw his The Wages of Fear and enjoyed it nearly as much. I've long been aware that Diabolique is considered his masterpiece, and have finally checked it off my "to be watched" list. More than 50 years after it was produced, it's still a powerful film with many shocks and twists, although you'll probably figure out what's going on (two of us watched it, we both predicted the ending, and I'm not usually good at that kind of thing). Regardless, the suspense and plot twists that occur along the way make this a highly enjoyable and still effective thriller. Simone Signoret is the mistress, Vera Clouzot (the director's lovely spouse) is the wife, and Paul Meurisse is the miserable wretch of a husband. It's based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac, who later wrote the novel on which Vertigo is based. Like some of Hitchcock's work, the ending ties everything up but isn't altogether satisfying, because... well, I don't want to go into spoilers, but let me just say that the film kinda-sorta pretends to have a "happy ending", but it doesn't. The Criterion DVD (#35) is awfully sparse, with no bonus material besides a brief essay on the film, and the print/taransfer could both use an upgrade. I'm sure somewhere down the line they'll get one. |
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| Stony Brooke da Mesquiteer | Jun 2 2008, 04:06 AM Post #2 |
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Sapient Balconeer
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I saw this Sat night and thought it was entertaining and suspenseful from beginning to end. Like Gravy, I've seen the same 3 Clouzot films in the same order. All 3 are damn good and suspenseful. |
| It's like Rodney King used to say, "Can't we all get a bong." | |
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