Diabolique
Short description
In a French boys' boarding school, the headmaster Michel Delassalle treats his wife Christina with contempt and openly carries on with Nicole Horner, a teacher on the staff. Christina owns the school, and when Michel makes clear he would rather ruin her than let her leave, she and Nicole, rivals until then, join forces to put an end to him. They carry out the killing and try to make it look like an accident, only for the body to vanish, after which Christina is troubled by strange occurrences. A retired police inspector, Alfred Fichet, begins looking into the headmaster's disappearance.
Henri-Georges Clouzot directed and co-wrote the film with Jérôme Géronimi, and produced it with Georges Lourau. It was his third feature, following Manon in 1949 and The Wages of Fear in 1953. Véra Clouzot, the director's wife, plays Christina, with Simone Signoret as Nicole, Paul Meurisse as Michel and Charles Vanel as Inspector Fichet. The film is based on the 1952 novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.
Diabolique drew strong notices on release: critics give it 8.8 out of 10, while audiences rate it 8.1 out of 10 on IMDb and 7.9 out of 10 on TMDB. It runs 118 minutes.
What's left behind the scenes
- The town the heroines travel to is Nyör, the director's hometown.
- The film was shot in an atmosphere of the strictest secrecy, and it ends with a request addressed to the audience not to retell what they have seen, so as not to spoil the pleasure for those who have not yet seen the film.
- Clouzot tried to achieve maximum psychological authenticity from the actors: it even came to the point where Morissa was submerged headfirst in a bathtub. However, his stunt double was carried in a suitcase.
- The film is based on the novel by Boileau-Narcejac, "She Who Was No More" ("Celle qui n'etait plus", 1952).
- Alfred Hitchcock wanted to acquire the rights to the novel by Boileau-Narcejac on which the film is based, but was only a few hours late. To console him, Boileau and Narcejac specifically wrote a novel for Hitchcock, "D'Entre les Morts" ("From Among the Dead"), which he then adapted into the film "Vertigo" (1958).
Auditions in India
Casting calls in USA
Castingi w Polsce
Кастинги в Україні
