Diabolique falls under the category of films that have 180-degree twist endings, such as The Sixth Sense (1999), Fight Club (1999), Seven (1995), and numerous others. Regrettably, unlike the other famous films in the genre, Diabolique’s twist ending does not age well. However, the film leading up to the climax is a masterclass in suspense that Henri-Georges Clouzot had already perfected in The Wages of Fear (1953).
The film takes place at a second-rate boarding school that Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse) runs on the outskirts of Paris. His wife, Christina (Vera Clouzot), a Venezuelan immigrant, is the headmistress who owns the school and finances everything. Michel is a misogynistic and abusive husband who berates Christina regularly and acts like a dictator to the schoolchildren. He frequently insults her and exercises complete control over her life, despite living off of her money. There is a scene where the staff and the children are having lunch in a big hall, and the cook serves rotten fish because there isn’t enough money to buy fresh fish. Christina refuses to eat her meal, but Michel humiliates and abuses her in front of everyone, forcing her to swallow the rotten fish. Christina has a heart condition, and she mostly gives up standing up to Michel because she knows she is physically and mentally weak compared to him. Michel thinks so little of Christina as a person that he also openly has a mistress, Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret), who is also a teacher at the school. But, strangely, instead of loathing each other, Nicole and Christina get along well, thanks to their common dislike and contempt for Michel.
After Nicole and Christina have had enough of Michel’s tyranny and abuse, Nicole devises a plan to murder him, which Christina initially opposes. They go on a holiday to Niort, several hundred kilometers from Paris, where they stay at Nicole’s flat and lure Michel to join them. Once Mitchel arrives, he abuses and slaps Christina, at which point she agrees to go along with Nicole’s plan. Michel begins sipping whisky from a bottle that Nicole had previously sedated. When Mitchel passes out, they place his body in a bathtub full of water, where they drown and kill him. They take the body back to school and throw it in the pool, figuring that, after some time, the body will float to the top and the police won’t suspect anything more than an accident. This elaborate set-up to kill Michel is skillfully written and executed by Clouzot, and nowhere does it seem illogical. However, to Christina and Nicole’s surprise, the body fails to surface from the bottom of the pool, and when the pool is drained, Michel’s body mysteriously vanishes, making them anxious and confused.
Once Michel’s body vanishes from the water, the film enters the suspense genre, which Clouzot skillfully implements. He leaves the viewers guessing as to what happened to the body. Was Michel actually dead? Did someone on campus steal the body to frame the ladies? Did Michel already know about the murder plot? Etc. were the questions that came into my mind when I saw the film for the first time. Christina becomes increasingly erratic and restless because she has no idea where the body is, and she repeatedly threatens Nicole about exposing their crime to the authorities. Furthermore, an old private investigator becomes interested in the case and closes in on it, at which point Christina’s heart condition worsens, and she is recommended strict bed rest.
The final revelatory scene is shot beautifully with pitch-perfect black-and-white photography, which is easily the best scene in the film. The twist will deceive those who are watching the film for the first time, but it loses its impact upon subsequent viewings because it relies primarily on presumption. Based on the 1952 French novel, “Celle qui n’etait plus” by Boileau-Narcejac, Alfred Hitchcock wanted to adapt this novel into a movie, but the rights to this novel were bought by Henri-Georges Clouzot hours before Hitchcock could. However, Hitchcock ended up loving the film and citing it as an inspiration while working on Psycho (1960).
With the exception of the film’s final minutes, Diabolique is a tour de force in creating cinematic tension and is still highly enjoyable today.
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