Diabolique (1955)

As I sat watching this film I began asking myself who or what the diabolique, or devil, was. I later learned that the original title was "Les Diaboliques", a simple change, I know, but one which carries with it very different assumptions with regards to this particular material. The title in the singular makes it infinitely more ambiguous--I like it much more, for murkiness is its greatest asset. This is an outstanding piece of cinema, a thriller and mystery whose influence is immediately visible in Alfred Hitchcock's masterpiece, "Psycho".

It is a story of a man and the two women in his life, his wife, Christina, and his mistress, Nicole. I called him a man which is a misnomer, for he is far more wolf than human. He is a deplorable, detestable, disgusting mistake of a man who has no money and no social standing, but throws his weight around as though he does. He flaunts his infidelity in front of his wife; it is her fat inheritance that signs Nicole's paycheck, for they both work at a boarding school.

Finally fed up with his monstrous behavior, the two women decide to murder Michel, concocting the perfect alibi to cover their tracks. Of course things never go accordingly to plan and so many errors seem to crop up, but it isn't until the corpse goes missing entirely that Christina and Nicole start to panic.

I had never heard of this movie until a few weeks ago, but having watched it it becomes obvious almost at once the impact that this film has had in the world of suspense. When the boarding school's pool is drained and Michel isn't rotting at the bottom it is as if the world freezes for a moment. The final ten minutes are so tense and so frightening as the idea of ghosts begins to creep its way into the back of our minds that the final image of the bathtub made me physically cringe. Hitchcock couldn't have done what he did without "Diabolique".

This is in every way an exemplary piece of film making. The magnificent story is fleshed out with beautiful dialogue and a set of complex and engaging characters. I wanted very strongly for Michel to die and it was so gratifying when it finally happened. That is a sign of effective material. Both Simone Signoret and Vera Clouzot (Nicole and Christina, respectively) give fine performances. The former is the tough, no-nonsense girl with the connections and know-how who stages the murder. The latter is the frail, pious victim who is finally pushed to her limits.

As the film progresses it becomes an assault on the mind. Henri-Georges Clouzot directs, and fashions something dark, taught and yet quite beautiful. We don't blame the women for what they do and hope for them to succeed even though intellectually we know that to be impossible. Still, we invest so much into the characters that it becomes too hard not to fall victim for Clouzot's ingenious traps.

This is nothing short of the French "Psycho" and a masterpiece in its own right. I am ashamed to say I was ignorance of its existence until now, but I shall herald its name, as should you all.

4/4