Diabolique Review- By Michael Carlisle

Title: Diabolique
Year: 1955
Director: Henri Georges Clouzot
Country: France
Language: French

Henri Georges Clouzot, as well as Claude Chabrol, is known as "The French Hitchcock". All three director's films are incredibly suspenseful and full of remarkably dark characters. They also are all masters of putting psychology on-screen. However, Clouzot may have had a harder life than both men.  Dogged by ill health, branded a Nazi collaborator and spurned by the French New Wave, his career ended before potential was realized. Still he made some great films and Diabolique was definitely one of them.

The film consists of a wife and mistress of a sadistic boarding school headmaster who plot to kill him. They drown him in the bathtub and dump the body in the school's filthy swimming pool... but when the pool is drained, the body has disappeared - and subsequent reported sightings of the headmaster slowly drive his 'killers' to the brink of insanity.

The style of Henri-Georges Clouzot was considered the scariest and most thrilling of all French Cinema. Diabolique has always been considered "the greatest Hitchcock film that Hitchcock did not make.". Indeed, Afred Hitchcock missed out on purchasing the rights to Boileau and Narcejac's novel, of which the film is based on, by just a few hours, Clouzot got to the authors first.

Diabolique is shocking and claustrophobic. It is full of very tense moments that keep you on the edge of your seat. The murder plot is very intelligently constructed; you will find yourself absolutely amazed by the end of the film. The lighting and cinematography make for a dark an disturbing overall atmosphere. However Diabolique is not perfect, it dabbles in a movie cliche which paints people with heart conditions as weak and helpless. In reality it takes a lot to harm a younger person with a heart condition, thus Vera Clouzot's character seems a bit melodramatic.

In conclusion, while I would certainly consider Diabolique a great film that must be seen, it's a film that is hard to watch more than once. Clouzot relies heavily on the un-expected to entertain his audience; once you've seen the film you aren't as involved in the suspense and it definitely hurts the experience. Regardless of this, Clouzot's film is one of great technical perfection. Praise it! 4/5