Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955)
Les Diaboliques (Henri-Georges Clouzot, 1955)

Author: Susan Hayward

Publisher: University of Illinois Press

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 150

ISBN-13: 9780252030895

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"Les Diaboliques" (The Fiends ) was a top grossing film in 1955. Clouzot shrouded his film in mystery, beseeching his audience not to give away the ending. He also radically changed the original story of Boileau and Narcejeac's novel ("Celle qui n'etait plus" ), heterosexualising the original lesbian plot. His film demonstrates how to imply, rather than show, horror, keeping the spectator in a state of continued suspense, only releasing us in the few final frames. Fifty years later, "Les Diaboliques" still intrigues perhaps due to its excessive ambiguities and numerous plot twists that make it a film noir to end all films noirs, and not least the great performance of Simone Signoret. In this enjoyable and challenging Cine-File, Susan Hayward, leading writer on French cinema, sets "Les Diaboliques" against the political culture of its time and demonstrates the importance of Clouzot as a master of the thriller genre. She gives an illuminating in-depth textual analysis of the film and presents a comparison with its US remake which, juxtaposed with the original film book, highlights the great staying power of Clouzot's version, still a popular film with international audiences half a century after its premiere."

She Who Was No More
She Who Was No More

Author: Pierre Boileau

Publisher: Pushkin Press

Published: 2015-09-15

Total Pages: 161

ISBN-13: 1782271406

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A murdered spouse returns from the dead in this classic thriller. Every Saturday evening, travelling salesman Ferdinand Ravinel returns to his wife, Mireille, who waits patiently for him at home. But Ferdinand has another lover, Lucienne, an ambitious doctor, and together the adulterers have devised a murderous plan. Drugging Mireille, the pair drown her in a bathtub, but in the morning, before the "accidental" death can be discovered, the corpse is gone-so begins the unraveling of Ferdinand's plot, and his sanity... This classic of French noir fiction was adapted for the screen by Henri-Georges Clouzot as Les Diaboliques ( The Devils), starring Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot, the film which in turn inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. A second movie version, Diabolique, followed in 1996, starring Sharon Stone. Boileau-Narcejac is the nom-de-plume of Pierre Boileau (1906-89) and Thomas Narcejac (1908-98), one of France's most successful writing duos. Boileau and Narcejac both individually received the prestigious Prix du roman d'aventures before beginning a partnership that spanned four decades, from the Fifties to the Eighties, and produced more than fifty thrillers. Their works inspired numerous films, including Alfred Hitchcock's Vertigo and Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques, based on their 1952 debut novel She Who Was No More.

Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot

Author: Christopher Lloyd

Publisher: Manchester University Press

Published: 2007-07-15

Total Pages: 204

ISBN-13: 9780719070143

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Despite his controversial reputation and international notoriety as a filmmaker, no full-length study of Clouzot has ever been published in English. This book offers a significant revaluation of Clouzot's achievement, situating his career in the wider context of French cinema and society, and providing detailed and clear analysis of his major films (Le Corbeau, Quai des Orfèvres, Le Salaire de la peur, Les Diaboliques, Le Mystère Picasso).

Film as a Subversive Art
Film as a Subversive Art

Author: Amos Vogel

Publisher: Distributed Art Publishers (DAP)

Published: 2005

Total Pages: 0

ISBN-13: 9781933045276

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By Amos Vogel. Foreword by Scott MacDonald.

Hammer Films' Psychological Thrillers, 1950-1972
Hammer Films' Psychological Thrillers, 1950-1972

Author: David Huckvale

Publisher: McFarland

Published: 2014-02-28

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1476604215

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Hammer Film's is justly famous for Gothic horror but the company also excelled in the psychological thriller. Influenced by Henri-Georges Clouzot and Alfred Hitchcock, Hammer created its own approach to this genre in some of the company's very best films. This book takes a chronological, film-by-film approach to all of Hammer's thrillers. Well-known classics such as Seth Holt's The Nanny (1965) and Taste of Fear (1961) are discussed, together with less well known but equally brilliant films such as The Full Treatment (dir. Val Guest, 1960) and Michael Carreras' Maniac (1963). The films' literary ancestry, reflection of British society and relation to psychological theories of Freud and Jung, architectural metaphor, sexuality, religion, and even Nazi atrocities are all fully explored.

Chanteuse in the City
Chanteuse in the City

Author: Kelley Conway

Publisher: Univ of California Press

Published: 2004-09-06

Total Pages: 276

ISBN-13: 0520244079

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A study of French film in the inter-war years focusing on women, particularly women singers, and the role they played in shaping a national, populist, Paris-oriented French cinema.

The French New Wave
The French New Wave

Author: Michel Marie

Publisher: John Wiley & Sons

Published: 2008-04-15

Total Pages: 184

ISBN-13: 0470776951

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The French New Wave: An Artistic School is a lively introduction to this critical moment in film history by one of the world's leading scholars on the New Wave. Provides a concise account of the French New Wave by one of the world's leading film scholars. Outlines the essential traits of the New Wave and defines it as a school that changed international film history forever. Includes a chronology of major political and cultural events of the New Wave, black-and-white images, and an extensive bibliography.

French Film
French Film

Author: Susan Hayward

Publisher: Routledge

Published: 2014-04-23

Total Pages: 372

ISBN-13: 1136214860

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The second edition of this innovative textbook brings together leading scholars to provide detailed analyses of twenty-two key films within the canon of French cinema, from the 1920s to the 1990s. Films discussed include: * masterpieces such as Renoir's La Bete Humaine and Carne's Les Enfants du Paradis * popular classics such as Les Vacances de Monsieur Hulot and Ma Nuit chez Maud * landmarks of the New Wave such as Les 400 Coups and A bout de souffle * important films of the 1990s such as Nikita and La Haine The films are considered in relation to such issues as the history of French cinema, the social and cultural contexts of their production and reception, the relationship with Hollywood cinema, gender politics, authorship and genre. Each article is accompanied with a guide to further reading and a filmography of the director, and the new edition also includes a fully revised introduction and a bibliography on French cinema.

Peeping Through the Holes
Peeping Through the Holes

Author: Eugenio M. Olivares Merino

Publisher: Cambridge Scholars Publishing

Published: 2014-09-26

Total Pages: 205

ISBN-13: 1443867756

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The essays presented in this book focus on Psycho, both the novel by Robert Bloch (1950) and the film by Alfred Hitchcock (1960). Therefore, the different approaches range from film studies to literary criticism. Norman Bates has become an icon of the late twentieth century horror genre, and the movie set the basis for later cinematic developments. Over 50 years after the release of the book and the movie it inspired, new readings, revisions and adaptations of the domestic tragedy of Norman Bates and his mother are still being produced, as recently as Sacha Gervasi’s Hitchock in 2012. Now the curtains (either on the stage or in the bathroom) are about to open and a most peculiar house – with its silhouette and endorsement of doom – is waiting up on the hill. No cameras or pencils are allowed; you’re invited to a ritual that only your eyes will view and your imagination will embody. Leave all hope behind and enter at your own risk. The Bates’ terrifying rollercoaster welcomes you. Nothing is over here … at least not until it overcomes you.

The Glass Kingdom
The Glass Kingdom

Author: Lawrence Osborne

Publisher: Random House

Published: 2020-08-20

Total Pages: 304

ISBN-13: 1473565200

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A tense, stunningly well-observed heist novel from 'the bastard child of Graham Greene and Patrica Highsmith' (Metro) Sarah Talbot Jennings, a young American living in New York, has fled to Bangkok to disappear. Armed with a suitcase full of cash, she takes up residence at the Kingdom, a glittering complex slowly sinking into its own twilight. There, against a backdrop of shadowy gossip and intrigue, she is soon drawn into the orbit of the Kingdom's glamorous ex-pat women. But when political chaos and a frenzied uprising wrack the streets below, and Sarah witnesses something unspeakable, her safe haven begins to feel like a trap. From a master of atmosphere and suspense comes a brilliantly unsettling story of cruelty and psychological unrest, and an enthralling glimpse into the shadowy crossroads of karma and human greed.