Les Diaboliques

The perfect murder goes awry when the body of a despotic headmaster goes missing, leaving the culprits in a spin. Henri-Georges Clouzot’s legendary thriller starring Simone Signoret.

Especially recommended by Jonathan Ross, Les Diaboliques is a legendary thriller directed by the French Hitchcock Henri-Georges Clouzot. Based on the novel Celle qui n’était plus by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejec , the film is set in a provincial boarding school run by sadistic headmaster Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse). Michel is a ruthless lothario and this provokes his long suffering invalid wife Christina (Vera Clouzot, the director’s own spouse) and his icy mistress, a teacher, Nicole played by Simone Signoret to concoct an elaborate murder plot against him. Never has been truer the saying, hell hath no fury like a women scorned, as in this case its two women. However, not all is what is seems as the perfect murder goes awry and the alliance of these two women is severely tested with unbearable suspense.

Clouzot crafts a gripping, chilling plot with moments of humour bound in seamlessly without affecting the overall tone. Les Diaboliques provides a carefully crafted insight into the base aspects of human nature, Clouzot is diabolically clever in constructed an atmosphere that leave the audience chilled. Impeccable performances from the three leads, Meurisse portrays Michel perfectly as a nasty piece of work, the audience can loath. Signoret is cool as the practical mistress while Vera Clozot performs an ideal measure of meekness and steel who is fraught between her anger and fear. The film won the Louis Delluc Prize in 1954 and went on to gain the New York Film Critics Circle Awards in 1955. A dark, dank thriller with a much-imitated "shock" ending, Les Diaboliques is a masterpiece of Grand Guignol suspense.