Diaboliques, Les (1955)

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General		Extras
Category	Mystery	Main Menu Audio Gallery-Photo Theatrical Trailer Trailer-Wages Of Fear, Manon Des Sources, Les Enfant Du Paradis Trailer-Jean De Florette
Rating
Year Of Production	1955
Running Time	112:18 (Case: 100)
RSDL / Flipper	RSDL (74:25)	Cast & Crew
Start Up	Menu
Region Coding	2,4	Directed By	Henri-Georges Clouzot
Studio Distributor	Filmsonor Umbrella Entertainment	Starring	Simone Signoret Véra Clouzot Paul Meurisse Charles Vanel Jean Brochard Pierre Larquey Michel Serrault Thérèse Dorny Noël Roquevert Yves-Marie Maurin Georges Poujouly Georges Chamarat Jacques Varennes
Case	Amaray-Transparent-Secure Clip
RPI	$29.95	Music	Georges Van Parys

    Christina (Véra Clouzot) and Michel (Paul Meurisse) Delasalle run a boys boarding school. Michel is a horrible arrogant beast, who is rude to his wife and everyone else, and is carrying on an affair with Nicole (Simone Signoret), a teacher at the school. But even Nicole has marks on her face from where he beats her. Christina suffers these indignities stoically, though she has a weak heart. But things have reached a breaking point. Nicole concocts a plan to murder Michel and make it look like an accident, and without too much difficulty convinces Christina to become involved.

    The plan is to draw Michel away from the school to an apartment house owned by Nicole, where they will drug and drown him Later they will put him in the school pool where he will be found, apparently dead of a drunken accident. The pair put the plan into operation, but something spooky seems to be happening.

    To give away any more of the plot than this would spoil the numerous surprises in store. The director Henri-Georges Clouzot was, like Claude Chabrol after him, often regarded as the French Hitchcock, with films like Le Corbeau and The Wages of Fear cranking up the suspense. And indeed this film is based on a novel by Boileau and Narcejac, just as Vertigo was three years later. Les Diaboliques is one of Clouzot's best in the thriller genre, as the tension is continually screwed up without relief until the final wryly humorous twist.

    The performances are all excellent. Véra Clouzot (wife of the director) perfectly conveys the conflicting emotions under the surface, though it is somewhat chilling to realise that she suffered a heart condition in real life that would kill her just five years later. Meurisse plays the objectionable Michel to the hilt and Signoret is also fine. The supporting cast includes the familiar Noël Roquevert as Nicole's tenant, and watchers of more recent French films will recognise a young and dark-haired Michel Serrault as the teacher Raimond. Then of course there is Charles Vanel, who would eventually rack up a film career lasting seventy-five years, as the retired police inspector.

    This is an excellent film and is well worth seeing. Do not be dissuaded by the terrible mid-90s remake with Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani.

Video

    The film is transferred in an aspect ratio of 1.33:1, close to the original 1.37:1, and is of course not 16x9 enhanced.

    This is a restored print, so it does look very good, but there are some transfer problems. It is very sharp with a lot of detail, but at the expense of aliasing and moire. These are noticeable on diagonal edges and car grilles, but mainly on the shutters on the school building. Otherwise the transfer is nice and bright, with excellent contrast. The black and white material looks very rich, with a fine grey scale as well.

    Some low level noise is visible during the night-time sequences. There are a few film artefacts, with some flecking. Some inserted stock footage has dirt and scratches, but this only appears briefly.

    The disc has optional English subtitles in a yellow font. The subtitles are well-timed and virtually all of the dialogue is translated.

    The disc is RSDL-formatted, with the layer change placed at 74:25 during a fade to black.

Video Ratings Summary

Sharpness
Shadow Detail
Colour
Grain/Pixelization
Film-To-Video Artefacts
Film Artefacts
Overall

Audio

    The sole audio track is Dolby Digital 2.0 mono.

    Dialogue is clear throughout, with no noticeable problems. It is a typical mono transfer of a film of this period, with some faint hiss and a relatively constricted sound. I did not notice any pops or crackling.

    Audio sync seems to be perfect.

    The music score by Georges Van Parys seems a little over-the-top at first, with plenty of dramatic chords, but it is used sparingly throughout and eventually seems quite appropriate for the movie.

Audio Ratings Summary

Dialogue
Audio Sync
Clicks/Pops/Dropouts
Surround Channel Use
Subwoofer
Overall

    A tiny selection of extras.

Main Menu Audio

    The main menu has some of Van Parys' score.

Gallery-Photo (1:25)

    Some stills and posters taken from the film.

Theatrical Trailer (1:35)

    A French original release trailer, which looks quite effective but has no subtitles.

Trailer-Wages Of Fear, Manon Des Sources, Les Enfant Du Paradis Trailer-Jean De Florette (12:25)

    Trailers for other Umbrella releases.

    The US Region 1 release from Criterion has no extras.

    The UK Region 2 release has a stills gallery, a poster gallery, cast and crew biographies and a theatrical trailer.

    There does not seem to be a material difference between the Region 2 and the Region 4, so I will call this a draw.

    A fine suspense thriller with some surprising twists.

    The video quality is very good, some transfer artefacts notwithstanding.

    The audio quality is good.

    Not much in the way of extras.

Video
Audio
Extras
Plot
Overall