Les Diaboliques (French Film Guides)

Les diaboliques (The Fiends) is an icy masterpiece of murder, mystery, and suspense, and was a top grossing film in 1955. Henri-Georges Clouzot shrouded his film in mystery, beseeching his audience not to give away the ending, and radically changed the original story, heterosexualizing the original lesbian plot. His film is a study in how to imply rather than show horror, keeping the spectator in a state of continued suspense, only to be released in the few final frames. Fifty years later, Les diaboliques still intrigues viewers with its myriad ambiguities, numerous plot twists, and the great performance of Simone Signoret. In this enjoyable and challenging volume, 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 compares it with its U.S. remake, which, juxtaposed with the original and the book on which it is based, highlights the great staying power of Clouzot's version, still popular with international audiences half a century after its première.