Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno (2009)
(L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Country: FR
Technical: col/bw 100m
Director: Serge Bromberg
Cast: Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Dany Carrel, Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin
Synopsis:
A hotel owner suspects his wife, corrupted by the lascivious behaviour of her best friend, of carrying on with the beefcake hanging around their waterfront terrace. He begins to follow her, even running after her bus when she goes into town.
Review:
Part documentary, part reconstruction of the unfinished 1964 Clouzot film, L'enfer, later remade by Chabrol under the same name. The first three weeks of an eighteen week shooting schedule yield reels and reels of test footage involving experimentation with colour reversion and kinetic art, a preoccupation that the director would later bring to La prisonnière, his last film. There are also scenes shot in and around the Cantal beauty spot of Garabit, with its Eiffel bridge dominating the skyline: Schneider water-skiing, Reggiani following her like Scottie in Vertigo, and Carrel preening with a pair of beach bums. Clouzot's decision to spend Columbia's money on three camera crews made up of the industry's finest, only to prove incapable of leaving the first to carry on without him, is both a sign of his famous meticulousness and the beginning of an obsessive behaviour, an unwillingness to leave well alone and move on, that Bromberg temptingly aligns with the pathological jealousy of the Reggiani character. It is all edited together like a waking dream, with Bejo and Gamblin reading in unrecorded dialogue, and Herrmann-esque music on the soundtrack, so that the erotic test footage and idyllic location material bleed into each other in the memory, leaving the viewer spellbound and bereft when it all ends.
(L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Country: FR
Technical: col/bw 100m
Director: Serge Bromberg
Cast: Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Dany Carrel, Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin
Synopsis:
A hotel owner suspects his wife, corrupted by the lascivious behaviour of her best friend, of carrying on with the beefcake hanging around their waterfront terrace. He begins to follow her, even running after her bus when she goes into town.
Review:
Part documentary, part reconstruction of the unfinished 1964 Clouzot film, L'enfer, later remade by Chabrol under the same name. The first three weeks of an eighteen week shooting schedule yield reels and reels of test footage involving experimentation with colour reversion and kinetic art, a preoccupation that the director would later bring to La prisonnière, his last film. There are also scenes shot in and around the Cantal beauty spot of Garabit, with its Eiffel bridge dominating the skyline: Schneider water-skiing, Reggiani following her like Scottie in Vertigo, and Carrel preening with a pair of beach bums. Clouzot's decision to spend Columbia's money on three camera crews made up of the industry's finest, only to prove incapable of leaving the first to carry on without him, is both a sign of his famous meticulousness and the beginning of an obsessive behaviour, an unwillingness to leave well alone and move on, that Bromberg temptingly aligns with the pathological jealousy of the Reggiani character. It is all edited together like a waking dream, with Bejo and Gamblin reading in unrecorded dialogue, and Herrmann-esque music on the soundtrack, so that the erotic test footage and idyllic location material bleed into each other in the memory, leaving the viewer spellbound and bereft when it all ends.
(L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot)
Country: FR
Technical: col/bw 100m
Director: Serge Bromberg
Cast: Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Dany Carrel, Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin
Synopsis:
A hotel owner suspects his wife, corrupted by the lascivious behaviour of her best friend, of carrying on with the beefcake hanging around their waterfront terrace. He begins to follow her, even running after her bus when she goes into town.
Review:
Part documentary, part reconstruction of the unfinished 1964 Clouzot film, L'enfer, later remade by Chabrol under the same name. The first three weeks of an eighteen week shooting schedule yield reels and reels of test footage involving experimentation with colour reversion and kinetic art, a preoccupation that the director would later bring to La prisonnière, his last film. There are also scenes shot in and around the Cantal beauty spot of Garabit, with its Eiffel bridge dominating the skyline: Schneider water-skiing, Reggiani following her like Scottie in Vertigo, and Carrel preening with a pair of beach bums. Clouzot's decision to spend Columbia's money on three camera crews made up of the industry's finest, only to prove incapable of leaving the first to carry on without him, is both a sign of his famous meticulousness and the beginning of an obsessive behaviour, an unwillingness to leave well alone and move on, that Bromberg temptingly aligns with the pathological jealousy of the Reggiani character. It is all edited together like a waking dream, with Bejo and Gamblin reading in unrecorded dialogue, and Herrmann-esque music on the soundtrack, so that the erotic test footage and idyllic location material bleed into each other in the memory, leaving the viewer spellbound and bereft when it all ends.