Diabolique 4K 1955 Ultra HD 2160p

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. Christine, who actually owns the school, wants a divorce, but Michelle says he would rather kill the poor woman than let himself go bankrupt.

Pushed to the limit, his former rivals decide to take extreme measures—to drown Michel over the weekend. 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 inspector Fische begins searching for the headmistress's missing husband.

User Review

Michel Delasalle has a powerful negative charisma. A piercing gaze, a tone that brooks no argument, a few imperious gestures—and suddenly you find yourself obeying his latest order. Everyone suffers without exception, but Delasalle's wife Christine and his former mistress Nicole are particularly hard hit. All three work at a private school, so most of the family squabbles and humiliating scenes take place right in front of the children. How can one fight such a tyrant? There is only one solution: in the best traditions of the noir genre, he must be drowned, and not just anywhere, but in the bathroom, after which his body must be dumped in the school pool, because then no one will ever find out. This is what Christine and Nicole, united by their hatred of Monsieur Delasalle, plan to do in their spare time.

The film Diabolique is an excellent example of skillful genre juggling. At first, we see a traditional staging of the perfect murder, in which, as is usually the case in such situations, everything seems to be completely planned out, and then suddenly falls apart. After the mysterious disappearance of Delasalle's body, the tension surrounding the case skyrockets and begins to grow exponentially. Christina and Nicole, dubbed “Diabolique” by the director, having dared to commit murder for the first time in their lives, now fear not only the police, but also their neighbors, the school janitor, and, of course, Delacaille himself, who has disappeared without a trace, either alive or dead. Here, the director immediately introduces a detective plot, and the final part will be turned into a real horror story.

As for the film's noir component, the overall pessimistic backdrop is exacerbated by the fact that Christina has serious heart problems and is going through an excessive amount of emotional turmoil, so the sick girl's constant stress becomes the main emotion of the film. But the main role in creating the atmosphere is still played by the city where the events take place. In the context of the two girls' paranoia, the college campus now resembles Lars von Trier's Dogville, where at first glance everything is fine and peaceful, but once you dig a little deeper, the infernal nature of the quiet town is revealed. It is no coincidence that Clouzot's work is often interpreted as if the devilish women are already in hell from the very beginning. The only thing that is confusing is the presence of children, but the French director's work makes it clear that children have long ceased to be a symbol of innocence for him.

Henri-Georges Clouzot is called the “French Hitchcock,” and it would be most logical to compare the two authors in what they do best—scaring people with their films. “To create suspense, give the viewer more information,” said the British director. For example, in Psycho, we learn about the crazy old woman long before the detective enters her house, which causes intense fear of anticipation; it can be said that Hitchcock prefers to give his audience a position “above the fray.” Clouzot, on the other hand, minimizes the amount of available information, forcing the viewer to associate themselves with the weakest and least knowledgeable character (in Diabolique, this is Christine). At the same time, both directors know perfectly well what to show on screen and when: a door slowly creaking open, the sound of footsteps on the stairs, a mysterious man whose face the camera avoids showing — such details, combined with the thoughtful play of light and shadow, make the final minutes of Diabolique so terrifying, but also constitute an almost complete quotation of the final scene with the criminal from Rear Window. At the same time, films such as Psycho and Vertigo were clearly shot by Hitchcock under the influence of Henri-Georges Clouzot's thrillers, so it is impossible to determine who copied whom more in this brilliant pair of masters.

In the final episodes, the author so unceremoniously leads the viewer by the nose that it deserves a separate description. Trying to sit on two chairs, Clouzot deceives, first offering an extremely materialistic solution to the initial situation, and at the very end leaving a plot loophole for lovers of mysticism and open endings. One of the college students, a rather ambiguous character who is either a medium and a guide to the other world or simply a brazen fantasist, helps to realize this author's idea. In the end, the viewer is left to their own devices and forced to decide for themselves what Diabolique is: a frightening tale of a perfectly planned murder or a mystical story with an ambiguous ending.

Info Video

Codec: HEVC / H.265 (85.0 Mb/s)
Resolution: Native 4K (2160p)
HDR: Dolby Vision, HDR10
Aspect ratio: 1.37:1
Original aspect ratio: 1.37:1

Info Audio

#French: FLAC 2.0
#English: Dolby Digital 2.0 (Commentary by Susan Hayward (book from collection The French Film Guides))

Info Subtitles