Diabolique (Les Diaboliques) poster & wallpaper

Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse

The wife of a cruel headmaster and his mistress conspire to kill him, but after the murder is committed, his body disappears, and strange events begin to plague the two women.

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93% liked it

2,080 ratings

Unrated, 1 hr. 47 min.

Directed by: Henri-Georges Clouzot

Release Date: January 1, 1955

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DVD Release Date: February 2, 1999

Stats: 571 reviews

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Véra Clouzot and Simone Signoret 'Les Diaboliques' 'Les Diaboliques'
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Flixster Reviews (571)

  • Saxia
    October 6, 2009
    Saxia
    Rating a movie is difficult, and I usually end up changing the rating after it has had some time to sink in. So this one can go either up or down.
    It's a Noir, and as you might know by know, not my favorite genre. But the combination of the two women, Vera Clouzot and Simone Sign...( read more)oret, made it enjoyable to watch. Clouzot is the soft and sensitive one, and Signoret is one tough cookie. Her presence bursts of the screen. The only thing that bothered me a little is the motive. I understood it, but I didn't really feel it, if you know what I mean.
  • her69eyes
    June 13, 2009
    her69eyes
    Henri-Georges Clouzot is most famous for his two back-to-back masterpieces, "The Wages of Fear" and "Diabolique". Both are films so suspenseful that Clouzout earned the nickname "The French Hitchcock". "Diabolique" is perhaps the more recognized film for it's twist ending - a sur...( read more)prise that, even if you haven't seen the film, i'd be willing to bet you've heard of or even seen. It's a shock, alright, and it's preceded by atleast ten minutes of film as terrifying as anything you'll ever see. While I prefer "The Wages of Fear", "Diabolique" is, in every way, a thriller masterpiece that may be up there with some of the best in the genre.

    "Diabolique" tells the story of two women who come together in order to murder a man who has wronged them. He is Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse), a rotten womanizer who serves as the headmaster of a French boarding school for boys. His wife, Christina (Vera Clouzot, director Henri-Georges Clouzot's wife), is a fragile and reserved woman whom Michel beats around. He also sleeps around with other women, like Nicole (Simone Signoret), a teacher at the school and Michel's longtime mistress. She wears a large pair of sunglasses to conceal the latest black eye Michel has given her. Christina is defeated and hopeless, a woman settled in with the lashings at the hands of her abusive husband. When Nicole confronts Christina about a murder plot, however, Christina doesn't shut the idea down as fast as one might think.

    Nicole is a strong-willed woman who is as aggressive as Christina is passive. When she tells Christina of the murder plot, Christina resists until Nicole essentially progresses everything along to the point where there's no turning back. The two drug Michel's alcohol, and when he passes out they carry the lifeless body to the tub. Above their heads, the neighbors complain about the noise from the faucet. They dispose of the body in the pool of the school, hoping for it to be found while they're on the premises. Nicole is patient, Christina is not. She pleads for the pool to be drained. Her wishes are granted. But the body isn't there.

    So, what happened to the body? Did someone see them the prior night? Is Michel alive? Such questions almost take a backseat to the tension that builds between Christina and Nicole when a detective, Fichet (Charles Vanel), relentlessly asks questions in order for one of them to slip up and contradict themselves. As the audience, we're no longer asking what's happened to Michel, but rather how on Earth they're going to avoid being found out.

    Most modern films get twist endings wrong. They're films that live or die on the success of the surprise, and films that, with a conventional ending, would be utterly forgettable. "Diabolique", however, is a success all the way through - it's cinematography gorgeous, it's performances impeccable, and it's suspense unrelenting and effective. The phrase "Hitchcockian" is perhaps the most overused in all of film critique, but there's never been a film it more aptly fit.
  • wellmeetagain
    December 22, 2008
    wellmeetagain
    Terrific tale that will keep you in suspense throughout. Many movies claim to be "like Hitchcock" and this is one of the few that I have seen that fits that bill. Highly recommended.
  • kenstachnik
    April 28, 2008
    kenstachnik
    The film Hitchcock said he wished he had made.
  • jplong39
    March 20, 2008
    jplong39
    the original without the camp of the remake, with a darker sharper edge
  • ElCochran90
    October 21, 2009
    ElCochran90
    "Die, darling! Die and do it quickly!"

    Les Diaboliques (1955)


    Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot
    Country: France
    Genre: Crime / Film-Noir / Horror / Mystery / Thriller
    Length: 114 minutes

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    Henri-Georges Clouzot, director of Le Salaire de la Peur (1953), directed in 1955 one of the greatest thrillers that cinema could ever have. Les Diaboliques is basically an insane and paranoic voyage into madness. Starting slow and getting scarier as its runtime grows thinner, Les Diaboliques is an extraordinary thriller that does what a thrilling movie is supposed to do: to build suspense effectively.

    The film's story is about a cruel headmaster who works in a school that belongs to her wife, who is a fragile and young woman that is constantly mistreated by him. However, she is soonly convinced by his also mistreated mistress, a forceful teacher who also works at the school, to plot against him in order to kill him. Once they succeed at killing him, they immediately hide the body, but soon after, the body disappears, while bizarre and unnatural events start to haunt them both.

    The first thing a spectator may think and/or feel when watching this masterpiece is its high "Hitchcockian" feel to it. In fact, Clouzot managed to buy the film rights to the original novel hours before Hitchcock did. I'm not implying that Hitchcock could've done a better job or something like that, but this film represents his style totally. The fact that this film takes place in a French provincial town adds a lot of extra creepiness to the story, and it works fine. Just like Hitchcock paid attention to all the little details in every scene, so did Clouzot in this film, wonderfully using proper sound effects, smart editing and a great rhythm. The movie has also film-noir elements in it, since the correct combination of light and darkness was beautifully used throughout, specially in the suspense sequences.

    The performances are wonderful and this movie may have even established the physical appearance of the characters according to their personalities and intentions that they have throughout the film, including emotional changes. We have the cruel husband, the tender wife with a weak heart and with sudden glimpses of ethics and moral, and the femme fatale. All of the characters are superbly created, and that is what adds a lot of quality and suspense to the film itself, since also Hitchcock understood the great importance of these elements when put to screen.

    Les Diaboliques is a very smart film that was clearly dependent on good writing, which it had. This film has the right combination of plot elements, including the pace. It starts slow, but starts to get even more intense towards the end. The last 15 minutes of the film were pretty much thrilling and horrifying, which leads me to the twist ending, which I obviously won't spoil. Alfred Hitchcok directed Psycho (1960) perhaps in order to outdo every single cinematographic and technical aspect that ended up being brilliant in Les Diaboliques, and Psycho (1960) is a better film in my opinion. However, Les Diaboliques has more shocking twists by a little bit and you will NEVER see it coming. If this film is spoiled to you is like if you knew what "Rosebud" is before seeing the masterwork Citizen Kane (1941).

    Les Diaboliques (1955) is a masterpiece of horror/thriller films and a pretty much influential one as well. This is also Clouzot's second best film in my opinion. A gorgeous little horror gem to watch.

    93/100
  • thestranger90
    October 3, 2009
    thestranger90
    Great film with a well executed twist ending.
  • addienairzan
    September 7, 2009
    addienairzan
    An Amazing Brilliant movie, waaay past its time. Superbly intense&the most memorable twist ever..And ofcourse theres a remake of it starred sharon stone. Please watch this instead.
  • ristrawn
    September 3, 2009
    ristrawn
    good & scheming & suspenseful with great twists... don't cheat on your spouse, you could be the victim...
  • SageSlowdive
    August 27, 2009
    SageSlowdive
    Good suspensful drama.

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