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Diabolique [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
 
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Diabolique [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]

DVD ~ Simone Signoret
4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)

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Region 1 encoding (requires a North American or multi-region DVD player and NTSC compatible TV. More about DVD formats.)

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Diabolique [DVD] [1954] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC]
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Product details

  • Actors: Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Jean Brochard
  • Directors: Henri-Georges Clouzot
  • Writers: Henri-Georges Clouzot, Frédéric Grendel, Jérôme Géronimi, Pierre Boileau, René Masson
  • Producers: Henri-Georges Clouzot
  • Format: Black & White, Colour, DVD-Video, Subtitled, NTSC
  • Language French
  • Subtitles: English
  • Region: Region 1 (US and Canada DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: Unrated (US MPAA rating. See details.)
  • Studio: Criterion
  • DVD Release Date: 26 Jan 1999
  • Run Time: 116 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 4.8 out of 5 stars See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: 0780021940
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 43,945 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

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Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Legend has it that Henri-Georges Clouzot beat out Alfred Hitchcock to secure the rights to this novel, which proved to be a veritable blueprint for an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery and suspense. Véra Clouzot plays the sickly wife of a callous headmaster of a provincial boarding school going to seed, and the commanding Simone Signoret is the headmaster's mistreated mistress. Together they plot and carry out his murder, a brutal drowning that director Clouzot documents in chilly detail, but the corpse disappears and a nosy detective starts sniffing around the grounds as threatening notes taunt the women. Clouzot's thriller is as precise and accomplished a work as anything in Hitchcock's canon, a film of gruelling suspense and startling shocks in an overcast, grey world of decay, but his icy manipulations lack the human dimension and emotional resonance of the master of suspense. Many critics have accused the film of being misanthropic, and Clouzot's attitude toward his characters is bitter at best, contemptuous at worst. The viewer is left on the outside looking in, but the razor precision and terrifying twists deliver a sleek, bleak spectacle worthy of attention. --Sean Axmaker, Amazon.com

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Customer Reviews

10 Reviews
5 star:
 (9)
4 star:    (0)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:    (0)
1 star:    (0)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.8 out of 5 stars (10 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
27 of 27 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Influential thriller which remains fresh, 2 April 2005
By Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Les Diaboliques [1954] [DVD] (DVD)
Based on a novel by Boileau & Narcejac. "Les Diaboliques" is a highly influential French psychological drama - the staccato music at the start has the monotonous tension which is generated at the beginning of 'Psycho', and the film was much enjoyed by Hitchcock himself.

Set in the Institution De Lasalle, a school for boys, the building itself is presented in silhouette, an ominous precursor of Hitchcock's Bates' hotel. The theme is that of the eternal triangle. The wife, Vera Clouzot, owns the school and wants rid of her husband, the school's tyrannical headmaster. The mistress, Simone Signoret, another teacher at the school, has tired of her affair and also wants rid of him.

The viewer is sympathetic. The husband is a brute of a man who beats his women, terrorises the school's staff, and rules the children like a despot. If ever a man needed killing! But how can two frail women hope to kill such a man and not be caught. Signoret has a cunning plan! The relationship between the women builds in intensity as they hatch their plot and lure him to the chosen killing ground. Will they succeed? Will they get away with it?

This is a superbly paced drama, tightly directed, the tension built layer by layer. It's a sophisticated plot which, despite its 1954 vintage, has lost none of its appeal - it was remade as 'Diabolique' in 1996 (with Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani). The themes are eternal. Red herrings litter the plot. False trails lead off in every direction. And yet you can watch it again and again and still enjoy the interaction between the characters and the confusion which seems to plague their existence.

A first class thriller, character driven with intense performances from the cast, taut direction and editing, and atmospheric black and white photography. A film which deserves a wider audience ... and which no self-respecting French teacher should fail to show to their class!

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24 of 24 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A haunting study of betrayal, mistrust and guilt, 29 Nov 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Les Diaboliques [1954] [DVD] (DVD)
Les Diaboliques is an unsettling and beautifully-paced study of betrayal, mistrust and guilt. Set in a decaying boarding school, it shows the grim course of a peculiar relationship between two female teachers (Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot) and its sadistic headmaster . Atmospherically shot in black and white, its murky tones hauntingly echo the moral ambiguity of its principals. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot expertly keeps the viewer gripped in a manner that recalls (or even prefigures) Hitchcock at his very best. The end caption of the film pleads with the audience not to reveal the ending of the film to any of their friends, and once you've seen it you'll understand why. This is a truly influential, intelligent, and unforgettable film.
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41 of 42 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Suspense plus. , 8 Sep 2007
By John Austin "austinjr@bigpond.net.au" (Kangaroo Ground, Australia) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
This review is from: Les Diaboliques [1954] [DVD] (DVD)
There are countless reviews of this seminal film to be read on the internet, so I shall direct my focus away from the aspects with which most of them deal.

Consider, for example the backdrops. Have you noticed how detailed and intricate they are? Every cobblestone in a street is seen, every crease on a bedcover, every scratch on a door handle - every shot is crammed with detail. I cannot recall seeing a blank wall or a plain open space.

This richness of visual detail is usually missing in Hitchcock films. I also find a richer dialogue than Hitchcock at this period ever provided. Richer too is the cast of eccentrics, drunkards, neighbours, and bit players. The drunkard who attempts to secrete himself in the back of the van containing the body in the basket, once seen, is never forgotten.

Writers Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac wrote the novel and the film rights were obtained by Clouzot only hours before Hitchcock's bid was received. Never mind if Simone Signoret usually has a cigarette protruding from her mouth in the early scenes, never mind that she and Vera Clouzot are made to totter around on the absurdly high-heeled shoes women wore in the mid 1950s, this is a film that will look good and captivate audiences forever.
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 		 Most Recent Customer Reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars still a great suspense film
Les Diaboliques (Diabolique) [DVD]
this film still has all the suspense it had when I first saw it years ago. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Mr. R. J. Soper

5.0 out of 5 stars Clouzot: a French Hitchcock
Other reviewers have described the twists and turns that make this probably the best French film noir of all time, and on a par with "Psycho". Read more
Published 18 months ago by Vandal9

5.0 out of 5 stars A Fantastic Plot and a Scary Film !
I concur with other reviewers regarding the quality of this relatively unknown French film. The tension and scariness of it stand the test of time, especially considering it is... Read more
Published on 21 Dec 2006 by Mr. Laurence Williams

5.0 out of 5 stars les diaboliques
although i am only a teenager, i saw this film in my french lessons and it managed to keep a classroom of smart arsed 14 year olds captivated for the four or five lessons it was... Read more
Published on 24 Mar 2005 by savethetreeskillabeaver

5.0 out of 5 stars A masterpiece
Surely if this was a Hollywood movie it would rate alongside the likes of Psycho, Gone With The Wind and It's A Wonderful Life. Read more
Published on 31 Dec 2004 by maz

3.0 out of 5 stars What the poolboy found
DIABOLIQUE is a cautionary tale about the need to keep your swimming pool clean, or not, depending on the state of your marriage. Read more
Published on 5 Mar 2004 by Joseph Haschka

5.0 out of 5 stars Crime pays since a child can see through it !
Simone Signoret is one of the greatest French actresses that ever lived. In this film, in black and white mind you and that black and white is used to perfection, the perfection... Read more
Published on 18 Nov 2003 by Jacques COULARDEAU

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