Les Diaboliques

Tagline-See it, be amazed at it, but... BE QUIET ABOUT IT! (original Finnish poster tagline) (unusual sidenote: Oddly i was unable to find a official tagline in English or even in French which is where the film comes from.) 

Hello friends! This time i'm reviewing a 1955 French film called Les Diaboliques, not to be confused with the 1996 film remake with Sharon Stone called Diabolique. It is a psychological horror and also thriller film and is a masterclass in steadily building suspense. I'm going to say spoiler alert even though it's six decades old but you should obviously go watch it before reading this.

A brief plot overview: Michel Delassalle, a despicable school principal becomes victim to a nefarious murder plot planned by a duo of his wife, Christina Delassalle, and his mistress Nicole Horner. However to Christina's and Nicole's shock and dismay, Michel's body disappears and strange things start to happen and threaten to drive both of the women to the edge of sanity and beyond.... 

In the very first scene we get a feel of how unpleasant Michel is when he drives up to the school and uncaringly runs over a child's toy boat in a puddle. Unfortunately this is one of the least terrible things he does. He beats Christina and Nicole often and is very strict to the students. Michel's wife Christina is kinder and gentle and teaches English and Math. Nicole also teaches at the boarding school and is stern but fair. 

Nicole convinces Christina to leave with her and when Michel comes to take Christina back, to murder him by drugging him into unconsciousness and then drowning him in the bathtub. After the deed is done they put his body in a wicker chest and dump the corpse into the school's disgusting, stagnant, and filthy swimming pool to make it look like an accident. The two women look like they're in the clear with a solid alibi. But then the body mysteriously disappears and soon the women are delivered by an unknown sender the suit Michel was wearing when he died! Michel also appears in a photograph in a window when the the boarding school is having a photo shoot. 

By now Christina is very unwell due to stresses both physical, psychological, and emotional. She also has a very weak heart. While resting she is awakened by footsteps and when she investigates she finds a typewriter with several dozen pages merely reading "Michel Delassalle" over and over and over again. She finally hallucinates Michel's corpse getting out of the bathtub and grabbing her and Christina promptly has a heart attack and dies. 

At the end of the film it's revealed that all the tension and possibly even "supernatural" events are being caused by Nicole and Michel himself who faked his death! It turns out that they both love each other and the real target of these events was Christina who they secretly planned to gaslight her (manipulate psychologically through altering events, surroundings, or other means to cause someone to doubt their sanity) to drive her mad or even better, frighten her to the point of heart failure. With her out of the way Michel and Nicole could take over the school and the finances which Christina was in charge of. 

However there is a detective named Fichet investigating the mysterious occurrences on Christina's behalf, (and unknowingly causing her even more stress because she doesn't want him to pry too deeply because after all, she does think she's guilty of murder) and he catches the criminals, now murderers, in the act and arrests them. 

There are plenty of symbols and motifs to unpack in this film and i'll only focus on a couple. Firstly water in general has a very big focus (swimming pool, bathtub, etc.) In my mind, water in the film has a strong association with death. The murder happens in the bath, they get rid of the body in the swimming pool, and at the climax of the film Michel's "corpse" rises from the tub and grabs Christina, which has fatal consequences for her.  Another motif that comes up a lot in the movie is drains. Drains are supposed to remove murk or filth from a situation. When Christina's nerve breaks and she has the stagnant pool drained, it does remove the physical grossness of the pool but the "filth" she was expecting to find (Michel) isn't there anymore!

The pacing of the film is slow on purpose to build characters and have lots of clues to what's happening and going to happen later. Such as when Nicole maintains an unusually cold blooded demeanor post-murder. She knows there's nothing to worry about because Christina's nerve is failing and she gradually becomes almost hysterical by the end. Nicole at first does just enough to set Christina's mind at ease but later acts increasingly scared to worry and stress out Christina even more when their plan to dispose of the body goes "wrong." When i first saw the movie, the whole "who brought Michel's suit to them and why is their hotel room abandoned" scene i thought that was very spooky and when Michel showed up in the school photo, in spite of logic i began to wonder if the solution was supernatural in origin!  The fact that the film has a relatively simple solution is testament to the enormous suspense and tension throughout the film.

Les Diaboliques ( translated variously as diabolical, fiendish, or devilish) was released in 1955 to massive positive reviews and acclaim and is the 10th highest grossing film made in 1955. It was directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot and stars Vera Clouzot as Christina Delassalle, Paul Meurisse as Michel Delassalle, Simone Signoret as Nicole Horner, and Charles Vanel, as detective Alfred Fichet.

It won many awards including Best Foreign Film in the Edgar Allan Poe Awards, National Board of Review Top Foreign Films, and winner of New York Film Critics Circle Awards for Best Foreign Language Film.

 In conclusion Les Diaboliques is a very suspenseful thriller that i think rivals the best Alfred Hitchcock films in almost unbearably nail-biting intensity. Interestingly it directly influenced Hitchcock to write Psycho five years later. Alfred Hitchcock also almost directed Les Diaboliques but dropped out. Anyway, it's an extremely good film with great acting, camerawork, motifs and symbolism, and more! I definitely recommend watching this one.

Thanks for reading!

Till next time,

Conrad Smith