Les diaboliques
Tags: suspenseful, mystery

Plot synopsis:
A second-rate boarding school on the outskirts of Paris is run by the tyrannical and mean Michel Delassalle (Meurisse). The school is owned, though, by Delassalle's teacher wife, the frail Christina (Clouzot). Delassalle also has a relationship with Nicole Horner (Signoret), another teacher at the school. Rather than antagonism, the two women are shown to have a somewhat close relationship, primarily based on their apparent mutual hatred of Michel, who is physically and emotionally abusive to both, as well as unkind to the children.
Unable to stand his mistreatment any longer, Nicole devises a plan to get rid of Michel forever. Though hesitant at first, Christina ultimately consents to help Nicole. Using a threatened divorce to lure Michel to Nicole's apartment building in a town several hundred kilometers away, Christina sedates him. The two women then drown him in a bathtub and, driving back to the school, dump his body in the neglected swimming pool. When his corpse floats to the surface, they think it will appear to have been an accident. Almost everything goes according to their plans until the body fails to surface. Michel's corpse is nowhere to be found when the pool is drained.
Nicole sees in the paper that the police have found the corpse. However, when Christina goes to the morgue, she finds it is not actually Michel's body. There she meets Alfred Fichet (Vanel), a retired senior policeman now working as a private detective. He becomes involved in the case, much to Nicole's chagrin.
When Christina and Alfred come back, a boy is punished for breaking a window; the boy says it was Michel who punished him. After hearing this, Christina becomes very upset and is unable to join in the school photograph. When it is printed, somebody looking like Michel is seen at a window behind the group. Nicole becomes worried and leaves the school.
Christina, overcome by fear, tells Alfred everything. He does not believe her, but he investigates the pool. That night, Christina hears noises and wanders round the school. When she realizes that someone is following her, she runs back to her room. There she finds Michel's corpse submerged in the bathtub, which is full of water. Michel rises from the tub, and Christina, who was said to have a weak heart, has a heart attack and dies. It is then revealed that Michel and Nicole have set up Christina from the beginning, with Michel acting as dead to scare Christina to death. However, Alfred hears their celebration and figures out everything, telling them they will get 15 to 20 years, depending on their lawyer.
Some time later, the same boy who had earlier broken a window breaks another. When asked how he got his slingshot back, the boy says that Christina gave it to him. A final title screen tells the audience not to reveal the ending to others.

Review: Set in a French boarding school for boys, "Les Diaboliques" tells the story of two teachers, Christina (played by Vera Clouzot), and Nicole (played by Simone Signoret), who conspire to kill the sadistic headmaster, a man who also happens to be Christina's abusive husband.Like most murder mysteries, the story is highly improbable; nevertheless, the film is still hugely entertaining, thanks in part to plot twists and turns that even Agatha Christie would admire, and to the film's B&W lighting, that renders a noirish, sinister atmosphere.The first half is interesting and tightly plotted.
And, Simone Signoret is as wonderful here as she is in all of her other movies.English subtitles require a little more work for viewers who cannot understand the French dialogue; yet, the story, the acting, and the cinematography should more than offset this minor irritation.
Background music occurs only during the film's title sequence and closing credits; this general absence of music thus enhances suspense.Although not strictly speaking a whodunit, "Les Diaboliques" is a classic murder mystery that has earned a well-deserved reputation for setting the standard for cinematic suspense.
"Les Diaboliques" has one of the best plots you will ever find in any mystery or suspense thriller.
The excellent directing, acting, and writing combine with the story itself to make it a memorable experience.If you enjoy quality mysteries or thrillers, you will almost certainly enjoy this one - and if you have not seen it yet, you might just want to buy or rent it now, before you read any more reviews.
The few implausible elements in the story do not detract at all from the enjoyment.A great plot does not all by itself make a good movie, and everything works especially well here because of the expert pacing by director Henri-Georges Clouzot and good, mostly understated acting by the main actors.
Once again, see it before you find out any more.Even if you do not normally watch black-and-white films or foreign movies (this is in French), if you enjoy thrillers, watch "Les Diaboliques" as soon as you have the chance..
The music theme played during the opening credits with the organ and the singing schoolchildren still makes the hairs in my neck stand up, even at this very moment.The story revolves around the tyrant schoolmaster Delasalle (Paul Meurisse) of a seedy boarding school, his wife (Vera Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret).
When subsequently his suit is returned from the dry-cleaners and the schoolchildren repeatedly testify they've seen Delasalle, they start to panic and the strange occurrences surrounding his supposed resurrection slowly drive them into insanity and complete paranoia.Justifiably hailed as one of the most suspenseful films ever made and often compared to Hitchcock's work.
The entire cast is terrific for that matter with Charles Vanel as inspector Fichet another standout.Clouzot takes his time to build up the story very precisely but once the mysterious things start to happen every scene adds to an almost unbearable tension.
Another terrific suspense film from Henri-Georges Clouzot, Les Diaboliques (also known as "Diabolique") is a tense story of murder, suspicion and revenge.
The plot revolves around two women, Christina (Vera Clouzot) and Nicole (Simone Signoret) who conspire to murder the brutish man who is Christina's husband and Nicole's lover Michel, played by the delightfully sullen Paul Meurisse.
The tension continues to mount until the hair-raising climax.This movie is on a par with some of Hitchcock's best work, although Clouzot doesn't mix much humor in with the suspense, as Hitch often did.
Unlike his previous film, The Wages Of Fear, Clouzot doesn't spend a whole lot of time on the set-up of the plot, but gets right to the meat of the matter, and from there Diabolique rolls along very quickly with barely a letup in the action.I can't believe it took me so long to see this masterpiece.
And then the bad stuff starts to happen.Ugliness...shock...suspense...shock...mystery...eeriness...awful shock.I remember, though it must have been forty years ago, the climactic scenes with my neck hairs standing up, sweat on my face, clutching the theater armrests like I was in danger of falling, and finally realizing I was weeping- not tears of sadness, tears of helpless terror.I envy anyone seeing this for the first time..
Headmaster of a boarding school, Michel Delaselle (Paul Meurisse) is a brooding bully of a man, one day his wife and mistress decide enough is enough and plot to kill him, trouble is that once they murder him, his body disappears and reported sightings of him are adding to the ladies' paranoia.Thus is the setting for director Henri-Georges Clouzot's brilliant suspenser.
While Alfred Hitchcock's "Psycho" may have been dealing with extra thematic material beneath its horrific surface, providing additional dimensions that the French film didn't have, "Diabolique" (or "Les Diaboliques" as it's known in France) is a thriller whose atmosphere and sense of mystery equal that of the great Hitchcock classic.
Concerning the wife and mistress of a school headmaster who conspire to murder him together, Henri-Georges Clouzot's film took a while to get going for me but once it did I found some solid enjoyment out of it.A lot of what makes it work comes more from the work of the two women at it's core.
Based on the Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac novel CELLE QUI N'ETAIT PLUS, Henri-Georges Clouzot's 1955 DIABOLIQUE is easily among the most influential films of world cinema, leaving its mark on everything from Alfred Hitchcock's VERTIGO and PSYCHO to William Castle's THE TINGLER--but even so, and while Hitchcock's masterpieces can be said to at least equal the Clouzot original, few if any of the films spawned by DIABOLIQUE ever bested it.Variously known as DIABOLIQUE, LES DIABOLIQUES, and THE DEVILS, the film presents a complex story.
Christina Delasalle (Vera Clouzot, wife of director Henri-Georges Clouzot), is a remarkably beautiful and considerably wealthy woman who has the misfortune to suffer from delicate health, personal timidity, and brutish husband Michel (Paul Meurisse.) The two operate a boys' school that Christina owns, and among the teachers is hard-nosed Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret), who has become Michel's mistress but who finds Michel every bit as unpleasant as wife Christina.An unlikely alliance springs up between the two women, and together they conspire to murder Michel and thereafter run the school for themselves.
While Signoret's performance of the angry mistress is the more widely celebrated, she is equaled by Vera Clouzot, who has the more complex role and whose performance must carry the weight of the film's most disturbing moments; together they create a truly remarkable synergy of the most lethal kind.I have seen DIABOLIQUE in several different releases, and while the Criterion DVD is somewhat glitchy it is easily the best version available; one should avoid all other releases, particularly the truly atrocious release by Madacy.
Like Stanley Donen's 1963 thriller CHARADE, Henri-Georges Clouzot's DIABOLIQUE is one of the best Hitchcock films that Hitchcock DIDN'T make!
Without giving away its twists, I'll only say that DIABOLIQUE gives new meaning to the phrase "cruel to be kind." Vera Clouzot (yes, the director's Mrs., or should I say Mme.?) and Simone Signoret are electrifying as, respectively, the long-suffering wife and mistress of manipulative, sadistic headmaster Paul Meurisse.
What if I tell you that Master of Suspense, Alfred Hitchcock was heavily influenced by this film when making Psycho, which is regarded as in most circles as the greatest thriller of all time.
This has become my favorite foreign film of all time and on the top ten list for best classic horror/thriller movie.
French thrillers always feature a strong social background:see Claude Chabrol's movies for instance.Such is the case with "Diabolique".In ,say,"Vertigo" (which,like"Diabolique,was inspired by a Boileau-Narcejac novel),the social background is nowhere to be seen;that doesn't prevent Hitchcock 's movie from being a masterpiece though.Clouzot's screenplay is much different from the original novel.The action doesn't take place in a lousy school on the paper.Clouzot wanted to be "realistic" ,that's why he literally created the two-bit boarding-school and the grotesque teachers.The actors were so good they survived their unbelievable characters.Another significant difference between Clouzot and Hitchcock:the former saves the "surprise" for a final that leaves you on the edge of your seat,the latter-in "Vertigo"- tells the audience the whole truth before the last third,and studies his character -who does not know- and his psychological reactions.Generally,in France ,critics favor Hitch over Clouzot,but the two directors can't be compared because their approaches are diametrically opposite.This is not legend.It is fact:this is the greatest French thriller ever.I'm overjoyed when I read all those enthusiastic reviews from abroad after all the negative ones I 've read in my native France.Thanks to you,all IMDb users!!.
French director Henri-Georges Clouzot, whom some have compared to Alfred Hitchcock, is so plot-driven as a filmmaker that he tends to skitter over minute details, such as a forgotten set of keys in a suit or another set of keys at the bottom of a swimming pool.
Granted he was already an iconic director, there are chances that without "Psycho", everyone would have praised "Diaboliques" as the most suspenseful and horrific thriller ever instead of any Hitchcock's film, so it's very probable that the Master of Suspense took the case personally.
The feeling of a set-up, intended to drive Cristina into madness, reminds of another Hitchcockian non-Hitchcock classic: "Gaslight", but with a darker undertone, more macabre, indeed more devilish.I wouldn't go further, out of respect to Clouzot who made his wish explicit at the end of the film, hoping no one would see the film after the dreadful remake, because 80% of the legend -not the quality- that elevated "Diaboliques" to its iconic status, depends on the gripping climax and the heart-pounding four minutes before.
Clouzot's films always featured a gallery of colorful characters, whom the viewers could identify with, and "Diaboliques" is no exception: Pierre Larquay, the elderly teacher, a young Michel Serrault, George Poujouly, the kid from "Forbidden Games", Noël Roquevert and on the top of all, the scene-stealing performance of Charles Vanel as Inspecteur Fichet.
As small as it was, Fichet inspired one of the most beloved TV characters: "Columbo", another reason to thank Clouzot for "Diabioliques".So, if you're a fan of "Columbo", of "Hitchcock", of French cinema, of movies with twist endings, there's no excuse not to see "Diaboliques", one of the best thrillers ever..
It starts as a drama and then later some of the characters must done something horrible, but the true suspense comes after something very "not according to a plan" happens.I liked the performances in this movie.
Although some of the acting could be a tad overdone, there really isn't anything to complain about in that department.The story is about a Headmaster, Delasalle (Paul Meurisse) and his wife (Vera Clouzot) and mistress (Simone Signoret) looking for a way out of his tyranny.
If you have seen the remake but not the original, please go back and see how good this film was with Clouzot's masterful script and direction and shot in glorious black & white.
Set and made in France in the 1950's, no other director but Henri-Georges Clouzot himself could have done better, not even the master of suspense Alfred Hitchcock, who intended on making this film via the novel.Although I did see the 1996 remake first starring Sharon Stone as Nicole and Isabelle Adjani as Mia (Christina in the 1955 version), no one can quite describe the magic this film had in comparison to the remake.
Her acting is superb and almost masterful.The time I waited to see Les Diaboliques was worth it, making this film more than just another movie I bought from the store, but a masterpiece, a classic in film history.
With "Les Diaboliques",Clouzot offered his beautiful and gifted wife, Mrs. Véra Clouzot,and also Charles Vanel and Mrs. Signoret,an imperishable aesthetic existence.This film is one of the finest instances of a director coming with the right stuff at the right time--making an astonishing masterpiece exactly when he was expected to do it--not out of the blue,not unawares--but a purposeful and deliberate and expected for masterpiece.(To give here only 3 examples:Jean Renoir with The River (1951) ,The Golden Coach ,French Cancan (1954) and Elena and Her Men ;Marcel Carné with Children of Paradise and Juliette Ou La clef Des Songes ;Robert Bresson with Au Hasard Balthazar (1966),Mouchette (1967) ,many others;etc.,etc., etc., etc..But I do not wish to seem to imply that this case is exceptional;many examples could be further given:all the great ones, Bergman,Bunuel, Fellini,Mihalkov, Kitano,Tarkovski,etc.).In other words,these are all instances of directors unvanquished by their previous glory and who continued making masterpieces after they became famous.They knew how to score.The glory did not spoil them."Les Diaboliques" is one of the best,the most perfect movies I've ever seen.Clouzot,the script,the dialogs,the cast,the cinematography,everything is hugely entertaining.Mrs. Signoret is one of the best and finest actresses that ever lived and worked (I share this passion with my mother!),and an ideal cast.Peter Falk,doing his "Columbo",looks almost as if he is a Vanel--wanna-be.Everything is there,in Vanel's Fichet,and Vanel does not need tens of episodes to draw his policeman Falk is good and amusing,etc.,but Vanel did it first,and with genius.Among the most alive policeman roles in movies' history!Mrs. Clouzot is also thrilling to watch,a very accomplished actress....And Clouzot,what a power,what a strength!I would rather see 45 times a Mrs. Signoret movie,than 45 Mrs. Stone movies!(It looks like Mrs. Stone did appear in 70 movies,till now!)I see "Les Diaboliques" was given a weighted average vote of 8.4 / 10.
Classic suspense film from Clouzot "the French Hitchcock".
Diaboliques, Les (known in the US as Diabolique or also The Devils) is one of the greatest suspense films.The acting is solid.Paul Meurisse plays Michel Delasalle a nasty head master of a boys school.
Film Review: "Les diaboliques" (1955) - Here comes the ultimate thriller of century, two women, one brunette, shy, over-thoughtful and carefully scared ever step of the way; the other, short-haired blonde, powerful, smoking-coolness striving to plot the perfect murder of the man in their midst.
Director Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907-1977) exceeds himself in suspenseful motion picture entertainment after the already high-tension road-movie "The Wages of Fear" two years earlier to present a screen story that keeps its contemporary means, given the audience female characters of sharp-shapes and edges to perform the righteous kill of the business endeavoring male as machoistic, always hungry swine.
To say anymore would be diabolical (see what I did there?)An amazing cast (especially the director's wife Vera Clouzot as the sparrow-like wife and Simone Signoret as the uber-cool mistress) are amazingly directed by the master Henri-Georges Clouzot.After making Wages of Fear, Clouzot optioned the rights to this film to make sure a certain Mr Alfred Hitchcock didn't get his mitts on it.
It is about two women who conspire to murder their lover and the mysterious series of events that occur after his body disappears.The two protagonists', Nicole Horner (Simone Sgnoret), and Christina Delasalle (Véra Clouzot), performances helped add the horror aspect to the movie.
A slow-burn thriller about the fragile wife of a sadistic boarding school master and his mistress, who hatch a plan to murder their husband/lover to pay him back for all the abuse they've both had to endure.Vera Clouzot, real-life wife of the film's director, Henri-Georges Clouzot, plays the wife in the movie, but Simone Signoret, as the cool-headed and cynical mistress, steals the show.
After this murder is body is disappeared and some strange events begin to happen and disturb the two women.I liked this movie because of the plot which had much of suspense and mystery in the whole duration of it something that I found very nice and interesting for a movie.
Equally good was the interpretation of Simone Signoret who played as Nicole Horner.Finally I have to say that "Diabolique" is a very good and interesting movie to watch because it combines very well mystery with thriller and the result from this combination is success..
It's undeniably a chilling and well made horror film which is patient and unpredictable unlike most of its kind.The direction isn't up there with Alfred Hitchcock but it's a well done movie with plenty of suspenseful moments.
They were never developed fully in the protagonists I would've liked to see, and that I have seen in other suspense thrillers.Though for its time, Diabolique enjoyed some mainstream success for being a movie of macabre (something that outside of perhaps Hitchcock films, was not something done too often).
Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Diabolique" is a suspense film based on a novel by collaborators Boileau-Narcejac, best known for writing the novel which formed the basis for Hitchcock's "Vertigo".
One cannot imagine a wife (Vera Clouzot) and a mistress (Simone Signoret) knowing each other, much less plotting together to murder the husband (Paul Meurisse), who is abusive, but that is the plot of this thriller that reportedly was snatched from Hitchcock by just 30 minutes.
Watch for Charles Vanel's performance as a "Columbo"-like Inspector Fichet.A good but not great movie, LES DIABOLIQUES is only worth a rental if all the Hitchcock films are already checked out..
Director Henri- Georges Clouzot doesn't waste any time getting us emotionally involved, with a man (Paul Meurisse) abusing both his wife (Véra Clouzot) and his openly acknowledged mistress (Simone Signoret), and in making it apparent that the two are plotting to kill him.
Considered a Horror Film, in the Hitchcock mode, has been Imitated and Ripped-Off so many times by now that the unfolding Suspense is Lessened by now Familiar Plot devices, therefore Today, the Surprise Ending will seem Familiar, although the Denouement has a few Shots of Creative, Cutting-Edge Cinema.The Movie does contain certain Realism and Reflection of Social and Cultural Behavior that was Not Evident in Mainstream American Cinema for Years.Quite well Acted, however the Children's School is a Poor Choice for the Setting and is a Distraction.
Henri-Georges Clouzot's "Les Diaboliques" is an authentic pioneer of murder mysteries/conspiracy thrillers.