January 2005 Archives

Les Diaboliques is the classic French suspense film from 1955, starring the incomparably beautiful Simone Signoret and directed by the French Alfred Hitchcok, Henri-Georges Clouzot, who barely beat Hitch to the rights from the novel. A well acted and directed story of murder, betrayal and suspense, it was a sensation when it first came out. It had an epilogue that The Crying Game would imitate many years later, asking the audience not to reveal the ending to others. While it has lost a little of its bite in the ensuing 50 years, it is still an excellent and taunt film.

Christina (Véra Clouzot, the director's wife), her abusive husband, Michel (Paul Meurisse), and his lover(!) Nicole (the aformentioned Signoret), all work at the boarding school that Christina and Michel bought with Christina's inheritance. It is a dreary place, with a penny-pinching Michel doing his best to make everyone's lives miserable, including both (or maybe especially) Christina and Nicole. Michel is constantly playing one off the other, lord of his roost, not shy about using physical as well as mental abuse to get his way.

The women begin to talk about murdering Michel, with Nicole being the stronger of the two. They finally build up their courage and run off to Nicole's place, where Michel follows them. Christina, despite her misgivings, works up the courage to finally put Michel away for good.

Or is he? Funny things begin to happen, and the women begin to wonder. Fichet, a private detective, offers to help Christina to find her "missing" husband, despite her desire for him to stay clear. In a manner that would be mimiced by Peter Falk 15 years later, Fichet slowly begins to unravel the mystery. Things come to an unbearable climax, amid myriad plot twists and turns.

This was a movie that was a lot of fun, especially thru the first half or so, until it became clear to me what was going on. There were several nearly comedic points of high tension and surprise, that just kept building and building, leading to a not altogether surprising (to me anyway), ending. But still, incredibly well done - bravo!

All the acting was superb. The dreariness of the boarding school could hardly have been protrayed any better, with the slime covered swimming pool a perfect symbol of its disrepair. The kids were real good as well, especially the "trouble maker", who keeps seeing dead people. And Charles Vanel was great as the disheveled detective, asking the same question in different fashions to try and trip the story up, as well as doing a lot of "Oh, by the way..." questioning.

But, like I said, it wasn't as surprising as I thought it would be. It was really tense until I guessed what was going on. And I'm also confused as to why they call the movie "Diabolique" in the US. That doesn't seem to be any less foreign than "Les Diaboliques", and it makes a whole lot less sense, because there are multiple devils in this story. I was also a little confused as to where Fichet came into it, and why he stuck around.

The black and white picture was pretty crisp, as befits a Criterion Collection disc. As is also true of many earlier films, this one contains no extras at all. But it is a highly recommended disc in any case, a real suspense classic.

Like my New Year's resolution so far? It was "Post something to my blogs every day" - ha! Here it is, the end of January, and this is the first post of the year for any of them (I also have a FreeBSD blog here, and a couple of other implemented but not actually started ones (one on the girls and another on my reading). Jeez, how hard can it be!

Well, I did post a review of Lost In Translation, a very very very low key movie that was fairly interesting. I also need to post one on Les Diabolique, which I enjoyed a lot. It will come, I hope!

Lost in Translation was one of the big "indie" hits from 2003. Nominated for 4 Oscars, winning one (Best Screenplay), it was a critical and commercial success. Written, directed, and produced by Sofia Coppola, daughter of near Hollywood legend Francis Ford Coppola, it tells the story of a chance meeting of two lost souls visiting the bustling metropolis of Tokyo and coming together to form a bond against the confusing world. Both Bill Murray, as the world-weary fading movie star and Scarlett Johansson, as the neglected wife of a fashion photographer, give standout performances in this very muted film.

Bob Harris (Murray) arrives in Tokyo, courtesy of Suntory, the large Japanese liquor maker. He's here to film some promos for their whiskey. Harris' star faded a long time ago, as a sort of Charles Bronson-ish action hero, but he is still revered in Japan. He arrives, tired and worn out, and is quickly reminded by his wife back home about forgetting his son's birthday. He hears from her on many other occasions, each time merely a domestic triviality that get funnier and funnier, culminating in a huge decision involving carpet squares.

Charlotte (Johansson) has been married two years, but is already disillusioned with life and her marriage. Her husband is a photographer who already pretty much ignores her, leaving her to wander Tokyo, a stranger in a strange land. She crosses paths with Harris a few times, each time getting a little closer. When her husband goes off for a 3 day trip, Charlotte asks Harris to accompany her to a local friend's party, after a chance meeting at the swimming pool.

Charlotte and Bob get closer and closer, with several touchingly quiet scenes of them discussing life from different ends of the rainbow. Charlotte isn't sure what she wants to become, while Bob isn't satisfied at his destination. Each offers the other a missing piece of the puzzle; Charlotte brings her youthful, albeit muted, optimism, while Bill shows her that things can work out okay in the end. They orbit around each other for the movie, which ends on a satisfyingly ambiguous note.

All in all, a very low key movie. Probably too low key for its own good, really. There was no denouement, as there was no real conflict. Just two people struggling to figure things out, and offering a new perspective to the other. Bill Murray had some really funny scenes, both laugh out loud (like the excercise machine) and more understated, like the many laconic comments. Scarlett Johansson was beguilingly beautiful, without being movie star-ish, if you know what I mean. She played off nicely with Anna Faris, who played a movie star promoting a movie and was a confidant of Charlotte's husband. Johansson's understated beauty contrasted nicely with Faris' perky movie star blondeness.

The DVD had a pretty interesting "Making Of" featurette, that was basically just a hand held video camera, filming while they were filming. It showed the "guerilla" filming as it happened, which was pretty fun. There was also an interview with Murray and Coppola, as they talked about the movie. The music was excellent, while the sounds did not, of course, push your speakers at all. There was also a collection of cut scenes, which once again showed that these movie makers know what they are doing, leaving these on the floor.

So I liked it enough to think about buying the DVD, although it is more of a mood piece than a real conflict-laden movie. Sort of like listening to a favorite CD when in the mood - a blue and confused mood. I'm not sure I understand all the hype though. For most people, a rental would work just fine.