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Customer Reviews of Diabolique - Criterion Collection

The Greatest Film Hitchcock Never Made.
Vera Clouzot stars as Chritina Delasalle, the abused mousy wife of Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse), the tyranical headmaster of a run-down French boarding school for boys. Despite being the rightful owner as well as a teacher at the school, Christina lives in terror of her husband, fearing violent reprisal should she leave him or try to stand up to him. She does not even protest when her husband has an affair with another teacher at the school, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret). However, when Nicole experiences the violent wrath of Mr. Delasalle, the two women deside it is time to get rid of the man who has caused them so much misery.

The plan seems to be a success. Michel is drugged, drowned, and then tossed in the school swimming pool. But when the pool is drained, no body is found and the women feel Michel's presence more than ever.

This truly classic chiller builds to one of the most frightening and suspenseful climaxes I've ever seen. It's also got one of filmdoms greatest twist endings which I wouldn't dream of revealing. Michel Delasalle is one of the most despicable men ever portrayed. Besides treating both his wife and mistress badly, he is also a miser. Despite being wealthy, he never makes any repairs to the old rotting school and buys rotten food for sale and serves it to the entire school. For that matter, few characters enlist any real sympathy. Michel's mistress Nicole is a hard, ruthless woman, Christina is weak and submissive, and the kids are all brats.

Word has it that Hitchcock was so impressed by this film that he wanted to remake it. Instead, the authors of the book on which this film was based wrote "D'entre les Morts" which Hitchcock would make into his masterpiece, "Vertigo". "Diabolique" has a very Hitchcockian feel to it what with the story line and the direction but without the Bernard Herman score or the humor. The film seems to have influenced Hitchcock's "Psycho" in a lot of ways. Certain things like the black & white cinematography, the place where the murder takes place, the way the body is disposed, the nosy private eye, and the twist ending are all highly reminicent of "Psycho". Film students would do well to compare the two. For everyone else, this film would make great Halloween viewing.

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The Original International Shocker
Based on the Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac novel CELLE QUI N'ETAIT PLUS, Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 DIABOLIQUE is easily among the most influential films of world cinema, leaving its mark on everything from Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO and PSYCHO to William Castle's THE TINGLER--but even so, and while Hitchcock's masterpieces can be said to at least equal the Clouzot original, few if any of the films spawned by DIABOLIQUE ever bested it.

Variously known as DIABOLIQUE, LES DIABOLIQUES, and THE DEVILS, the film presents a complex story. Christina Delasalle (Vera Clouzot, wife of director Henri-Georges Clouzot), is a remarkably beautiful and considerably wealthy woman who has the misfortune to suffer from delicate health, personal timidity, and brutish husband Michel (Paul Meurisse.) The two operate a boys' school that Christina owns, and among the teachers is hard-nosed Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret), who has become Michel's mistress but who finds Michel every bit as unpleasant as wife Christina. An unlikely alliance springs up between the two women, and together they conspire to murder Michel and thereafter run the school for themselves. But although the murder seems to go as planned, the body goes missing, and the two women suddenly find themselves taunted by mysterious notes and strange happenings. Has Michel survived the attempt on his life? Or has the murder been discovered and the stage is being set for blackmail?

In the wake of DIABOLIQUE's international success, the story has been told in so many variations that many may consider the original has lost some of the shock value it possessed when it first debuted, but even so the film has much to offer. This is particularly true in terms of style of performances. Director Clouzot endows the film with a sense of visual decay and a near-documentary tone that merge to create one of the most chilling atmospheres ever captured on screen. While Signoret's performance of the angry mistress is the more widely celebrated, she is equaled by Vera Clouzot, who has the more complex role and whose performance must carry the weight of the film's most disturbing moments; together they create a truly remarkable synergy of the most lethal kind.

I have seen DIABOLIQUE in several different releases, and while the Criterion DVD is somewhat glitchy it is easily the best version available; one should avoid all other releases, particularly the truly atrocious release by Madacy. Strongly recommended, particularly to fans of internation cinema and classic suspense.

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A sometimes confusing, angst ridden classic
If "Diabolique" influenced Hitchcock's "Psycho", one would have to say that the classic French film exceeds the 'classic' American slasher flick.

In a twisted and at times really confused turn of events, a shy schoolmarm teams up with her husband's mistress to kill him (or so we think). The husband is a real SOB, constantly bossing both of them around and treating his students like dogs. Since he is in a position of provincial power, however, his petty control games and short temper go unremarked upon. There are tones of lesbianism in this sleek thriller, with the wife and mistress and forming (*(it seems*) a strong bond in their hatred of the husband. The only lucid character we have is a private investigator who precipitates a tragedy, perhaps without knowing it. (Or is he in on it too?_

I won't spoil the rest of the film for the viewer, but it would be safe to say that this is one of the strangest plots I have ever encountered, and one of the most intriguing. We are confronted with weakness versus strength, good versus evil, and the standard collection of themes, but in a subtle, disturbing fashion. The last scene in the film, when a child comments on the schoolmarm's appearance in the school, is enough to leave one wondering whether there is yet another element at work which we have not yet seen. This is far better than "Psycho", although one can see the parallels. A must see.