See buying choices for this item to see if it's one of the millions that are eligible for Amazon Prime.

15 used & new from £1.60
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
   
Diabolique [DVD] [1996]
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images

Diabolique [DVD] [1996]

DVD ~ Sharon Stone
3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


4 new from £5.95 11 used from £1.60
Learn about Lovefilm
Amazon's choice for DVD rental.
With a 14 day FREE trial. Learn more

What Do Customers Ultimately Buy After Viewing This Item?

Diabolique [DVD] [1996]
80% buy the item featured on this page:
Diabolique [DVD] [1996] 3.0 out of 5 stars (6)
The Salton Sea [DVD] [2002]
6% buy
The Salton Sea [DVD] [2002] 4.4 out of 5 stars (5)
£13.99
Basic Instinct 2 (Uncut Version) [DVD] [2006]
5% buy
Basic Instinct 2 (Uncut Version) [DVD] [2006] 3.1 out of 5 stars (21)
£4.98
No Country For Old Men [DVD] [2007]
4% buy
No Country For Old Men [DVD] [2007] 3.3 out of 5 stars (166)
£4.97
Explore similar items

Product details

  • Actors: Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri, Kathy Bates, Spalding Gray
  • Directors: Jeremiah S. Chechik
  • Writers: Don Roos, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Pierre Boileau, Thomas Narcejac
  • Producers: Bill Todman Jr., Chuck Binder, Gary Barber
  • Format: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen
  • Language English
  • Subtitles: Arabic, Dutch, English, French, German, Italian, Spanish
  • Region: Region 2 (This DVD may not be viewable outside Europe. Read more about DVD formats.)
  • Aspect Ratio: 1.85:1
  • Number of discs: 1
  • Classification: 18
  • Studio: Warner Home Video
  • DVD Release Date: 28 Jan 2002
  • Run Time: 103 minutes
  • Average Customer Review: 3.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
  • ASIN: B00005TNYZ
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 16,569 in DVD (See Bestsellers in DVD)

    •  Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Reviews

Amazon.co.uk Review
Diabolique is Jeremiah Chechik's 1996 revamped version of the 1955 French film noir tale of two teachers at a boys school conspiring to kill the headmaster (played in the remake by Chazz Palminteri of Jade and The Usual Suspects). The three assemble an intriguing triangle of revenge and deceit as the headmaster's abused and humiliated wife and mistress team up to get even. Mia Baran is the fragile wife with a delicate heart condition, portrayed by Isabelle Adjani (Queen Margot), and Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) is the plotting, contemptuous mistress. Together they set out to wreak an unfortunate revenge, but as the story reveals itself, miscalculations abound as hidden agendas and secret lives are unexpectedly exposed. Chechik's new look and timeless setting give film noir audiences something neoteric and seductive to play with. A welcomed change to the film's story line is the fresh addition of Kathy Bates as a daunting private detective. Fans of Stone's will not be disappointed with the latest version of her "I-could-give-a-damn smoldering broad" technique and anyone not yet familiar with Chazz Palminteri will love watching him succeed as the ultimately despicable headmaster. --Michele Goodson

Special Features
1.85 Wide Screen
DVD 9
French\Italian
English\Italian
English
Region 2
Dolby Digital 5.1 English French Italian
Dolby Digital 5.1
Behind The Scenes Featurette
Interactive Menus
Scene Access
Trailer
Arabic\Dutch\English\French\German\Italian\Spanish


See all Reviews

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

Sliver [DVD] [1993]

Sliver [DVD] [1993]

DVD ~ Sharon Stone
3.7 out of 5 stars (3)  £2.98
Basic Instinct 2 (Uncut Version) [DVD] [2006]

Basic Instinct 2 (Uncut Version) [DVD] [2006]

DVD ~ Sharon Stone
3.1 out of 5 stars (21)  £4.98
Intersection [DVD] [1994]

Intersection [DVD] [1994]

DVD ~ Richard Gere
4.2 out of 5 stars (6)  £7.78
Final Analysis [DVD] [1992]

Final Analysis [DVD] [1992]

DVD ~ Richard Gere
3.5 out of 5 stars (2)  £2.98
Scissors [1991] [DVD]

Scissors [1991] [DVD]

DVD ~ Sharon Stone
4.3 out of 5 stars (3)  £7.79
› Explore similar items

Tags Customers Associate with This Product

 (What's this?)
Click on a tag to find related items, discussions, and people.
Check the boxes next to the tags you consider relevant or enter your own tags in the field below
(1)
See all 2 tags...

Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags
 

Customer Reviews

6 Reviews
5 star:    (0)
4 star:
 (3)
3 star:
 (1)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
3.0 out of 5 stars (6 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Losing in the translation, 23 May 2004
By Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland) - See all my reviews
(TOP 50 REVIEWER)   
This review is from: Diabolique [DVD] [1996] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
A remake of a tense French original, this is a twist on the eternal triangle scenario as the two women attempt to dispose of their redundant lover.
Isabel Adjani owns a school for difficult boys: the most difficult of them is her brutish husband. Sharon Stone is his lover, drawn to the conclusion that life would be better without him. The two women plot a murder and execute it in chaotic fashion. The body, however, fails to lie down. Is he dead? Is he alive? Has someone seen them? Are they being blackmailed? And the very private eye of Kathy Bates is now investigating his disappearance.
As a plot, it has great potential. The cast is, potentially, excellent. But something is lost in the translation. What could and should have been a first-rate thriller is reduced to almost B-movie fare as plot and characterisation are subjected to Hollywood's ritual process of the bland leading the bland.
The whole production fails to crank up the tension and eroticism. Adjani's character is a former nun, an abused woman suffering from a heart condition: there is considerable potential here for sympathy, for drama, for erotic exploitation ... and yet the character comes across as insipid, most of the time reduced to a simpering, onlooker role.
Stone can deliver wonderful performances as a hard-bitten, assertive woman of the world, sexually predatory and self-confident ... yet the performance isn't quite convincing here. You feel she is reduced to a plastic stereotype and given no chance to envigorate her role. Even the explosive sexual tension between her and Adjani is reduced to the fizzle of a damp squib.
Bates, meanwhile, appears as a belligerent little rolly-poly detective with a sense of humour ... but her role doesn't quite get the comic leverage and dramatic presence it deserves.
All in all, the ingredients were there, but you are left feeling that while it tries hard, 'Diabolique' should have done much better.
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars This film misses the real context of the original, 9 Jun 2006
By Jacques COULARDEAU "A soul doctor, so to say" (OLLIERGUES France) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Diabolique [DVD] [1996] [Region 1] [US Import] [NTSC] (DVD)
This is a remake of the black and white adaptation of Boileau-Narcejac's novel. The shift from the French context to the American decor is nothing but a change of settings and it adds nothing. But it is extremely well built as a thriller and this American version adds a clearly stated sexual relationship between the two main women, the plotters. It also emphasizes this feminine presence by making the « inspector » a woman, which is unthinkable in the French context of the 1950s. And this woman can become an accomplice in the final cover-up, the final assassination of the ressuscitated victim, out of feminine understanding. The context of this let's say prep-school for boys is hardly described and does not correspond to the original French school for delinquents. We never get this idea that the kids are imprisoned and that the school is a reservation for anonymous survivors ghetto-ised out of the social war that is raging outside. And that is such « schools » that both the conservative right and the socialist left are asking for in France right now to take care of suburban young rebels who call themselves barbarians or the natives of the republic, be they black, brown, grey or white, which does not in anyway matter.

Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne
Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars It's all about Chemistry and Mystery, 10 Nov 2002
This remake of the 1954 French movie Les Diaboliques is a sharp thriller. It stars, Sharon Stone - In her one of her excellent turns as a femme fatale, Isabelle Adjani - The Wide eyed innocent (or is she?) and Chazz Palminteri - The Cruel Husband. While this is a remake it differs in several areas to the original and is more "Hollywood manufactured" this works for the intended audience.

This film is all about intrigue, it works hard to keep you guessing and the chemistry between the three leads holds the film together. Kathy Bates makes an appearance as a wise-cracking private detective in a small but strangely comical role. Isabelle Adjani is beautiful and doe eyed, successfully balancing her characters innocence and more evil side. The always engaging Palminteri is suitably menacing in his role although not quite as sadistic as perhaps the character should have been.

Overall a very satisfying film, with a bit of everything for anyone.

Comment Comment | Permalink | Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 
 
Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars SHOCKING.... (LY BAD).
I guess this is the film that finally killed off Jeremiah Chechik's career as a movie director, but it's hard to sympathise with someone who could turn out two stinking turkeys in... Read more
Published 20 months ago by BoatDrinks

2.0 out of 5 stars Lame remake of 1955 French Classic
The plot has everything, a sadistic headmaster, his rich, sick and abused wife, his hard bitten mistress that lives with them, the women teaming up to murder him. Read more
Published on 9 Jun 2007 by pointone

4.0 out of 5 stars four great actors,one great film
This is a film to watch for the quality of the acting alone.
It also has an interesting plot and dialogue. Read more
Published on 28 Aug 2005

Only search this product's reviews


Customer Discussions

 Beta (What's this?)
This product's forum (0 discussions)
  Discussion Replies Latest Post
  No discussions yet

Ask questions, Share opinions, Gain insight
Start a new discussion
Topic:
First post:
Prompts for sign-in
  [Cancel]


Active discussions in related forums
   
Related forums

Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Feedback

Fun for Everyone

Christmas Gifts
Achieve over 15,000 RPM with our great range of Powerballs.

›Shop the Powerball store

  

More From Randy Edelman

Six Days, Seven...

Six Days, Seven Nights [DVD] [1998]

The African Queen meets Swept Away in this sometimes laboured romantic... Read more
£14.99 £3.98

 

We've Got Converse

Converse
Stock up on your favourite styles with great deals on Converse shoes.

›Shop Converse

  

Treat Someone

Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificates--available in any amount from £5 to £500 With an Amazon.co.uk Gift Certificate, you can get them what they want (even if you don't know what that is).

›Learn more about Gift Certificates

  
Ad

Where's My Stuff?

Delivery and Returns

Need Help?

Your Recent History

  (What's this?)
You have no recently viewed items or searches.

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.

Look to the right column to find helpful suggestions for your shopping session.
Continue Shopping: Top Sellers
The Girl Who Played with Fire
The Girl Who Played with Fire by Stieg Larsson
4.5 out of 5 stars (72)£3.86
 Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga)
Breaking Dawn (Twilight Saga) by Stephenie Meyer
4.1 out of 5 stars (457)£6.49
 The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo
The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo by Stieg Larsson
4.1 out of 5 stars (161)£3.99
 The Host
The Host by Stephenie Meyer
4.2 out of 5 stars (80)£3.86

amazon.co.uk Amazon Home
International Sites:  United States  |  Germany  |  France  |  Japan  |  Canada  |  China
Business Programs: Sell on Amazon  |  Fulfilment by Amazon  |  Join Associates  |  Join Advantage
Customer Service  |  Help  |  View Basket  |  Your Account
About Amazon.co.uk  |  Careers at Amazon
Conditions of Use & Sale |  Privacy Notice  © 1996-2009, Amazon.com, Inc. and its affiliates