Diabolique 4K 1955 Ultra HD 2160p

Story Movie

Michelle Delasalle, the headmaster of a private school, is a terrible husband and a very bad person. His colleagues, his wife Christine, and even his mistress Nicole can't stand him. His wife, who actually owns the school, wants a divorce, but Michelle says he would rather kill her. Driven to the limit, his former rivals decide to take the extreme step of drowning their tormentor. All that remains is to hide the body, report the disappearance to the police, and forget about this nightmare. But suddenly the body disappears, and Christina begins to be haunted by strange visions. Meanwhile, retired police officer Fische begins searching for the headmistress's missing husband.

Review 4K Movie

Having won the Palme d'Or at the 1953 Cannes Film Festival for his film The Wages of Fear, director Henri-Georges Clouzot released an equally brilliant film two years later with the striking title Diabolique, based on the novel She Who Was Gone The film is replete with various cinematic techniques: from blind imitation of Alfred Hitchcock (who, incidentally, was offered to direct this film) to conscious borrowing of stylistic flourishes from the noir genre, which was very popular in the West at the time. However, these elements are woven into the film so skillfully that they in no way raise suspicions of its creative inadequacy; on the contrary, they emphasize Clouzot's admiration for his American colleagues. The viewer is presented with an ambiguous film that will happily take them from almost physical tension to Homeric laughter and then on to blood-curdling horror. These transitions are so smooth that you won't even notice them as you immerse yourself in the plot of the film.

Michel Delacassey can hardly be called a good person. As the director of a private educational institution, he is disliked by his students and colleagues because of his nasty character, and his tyranny towards his wife and unwillingness to divorce force the unfortunate woman to take extreme measures, namely to get rid of her despotic husband once and for all. A friend named Nicole, Michel's former lover, who has a personal grudge against him, offers to help her. Taking advantage of a convenient opportunity, the women kill their “shared lover” and make it look as if he died by his own fault. However, they did not know that the deceased would not want to remain deceased—Michel's missing corpse begins to behave like a living person, whose presence becomes so palpable that “Diabolique” no longer fits into their plan: one tries to escape, the other surrenders to the police...

The idea of bringing together Simone Signoret and Vera Clouzot is remarkable. The diametric opposition of the actresses, both in terms of appearance and acting, emphasizes the difference between their screen characters, who commit a cold-blooded crime before the viewer's eyes. While the former appears as a calculating, heartless bitch who essentially pushes her friend to kill her husband, the latter evokes nothing but sympathy for her sick and fragile nature and weak heart.

The director masterfully plays with the viewer, turning a thriller about premeditated murder into a real horror film, whose black-and-white palette only enhances the effect of the indescribable nightmare into which the main characters have unwittingly fallen. In one of the final scenes, Diabolique, which takes place on screen, begins to exceed all conceivable norms—you will never forget these shadows on the wall, the creaking of wooden floors, the tapping of a typewriter...

The ending of the film may shock you, leave you stunned, and render you speechless, but in any case, it will not leave you indifferent. It is not recommended for people with weak hearts to watch it — there is a risk of not seeing the final credits. Moreover, the final twist, devised by the authors of the film, leaves room for different interpretations of the film's meaning.

I remember when I first saw the film (I was 12 at the time), it seemed incredibly sinister to me. I couldn't sleep for many nights in a row, replaying the plot of the film in my head, especially the ending. To say that I felt uncomfortable is an understatement. After rewatching the film many years later, I, who had become a seasoned, cynical cinephile by then, no longer found it so scary. Surprisingly, it began to seem incredibly funny to me. After all, there is a lot of humor in the film, you just have to look for it.

It's kind of awkward to write about Simone Signoret's acting: she's brilliant in all her films and totally out of reach for everyone else. I want to highlight two other actors: Vera Clouzot, the director's wife, who played Christine, and Charles Vanel, who played the meticulous detective. Both appeared in the director's previous film, The Price of Fear.

In 1996, Hollywood couldn't resist and made a remake of the same name starring Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani, which turned out to be so pathetic and worthless that even mentioning it in this review seems like blasphemy against the original. However, I still had to do so in order to prevent viewers interested in Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece from confusing it with the modern fake.