Post by klep on Jan 22, 2018 7:52:11 GMT -6
MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 1/22: Diabolique
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM WEEK!
Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse) is an evil shit. He cheats on and abuses his wife and beats his mistress, and that's before we get to the myriad smaller ways he makes life miserable for the people around him. Thus it's no surprise that his mistress Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret) suggests to his wife Christina (Vera Clouzot, director H.G. Clouzot's wife) that they kill him.
What might be a little more surprising is how hesitant Christina is. But she's been terrorized by this man for eight long years, and already has a delicate constitution - a heart condition makes stress and strenuous activity dangerous. Furthermore, she is a pious Catholic woman, and killing another man - let alone her husband - would damn her. Even divorce is a step too far for her to pull the trigger - though all of their money is hers. But then Michel rapes her, and she takes the plunge. She and Nicole successfully execute a clever plan to secretly lure him away, then drown him and dump him back in the pool at their boarding school.
It looks like we've got a whodunnit on our hands, and Clouzot obligingly throws us a number of clues as to how they'll be found out on the trip back home. "Ah," you think, "the police will learn the time of the bath!" Or they'll find the gas attendant who notices the leaking trunk. Or they'll talk to the kid who saw the bottle of poison. We see what's going to happen; the women will be caught and we'll have a tragedy on our hands.
But then the body disappears. And Michel's suit comes back dry-cleaned. Did someone find the body? Is Michel alive? Are they being haunted? What was a reasonably straightforward drama of an attempt to murder and get away with it becomes an escalating exercise in tension and suspense as Nicole and Christina try to figure out what's going on and how to get out of it. Further threatening their exposure is a police commissioner Alfred Fichet (Charles Vanel), who latches on to Michel's disappearance and cannily sets about trying to track him down.
Who's going to get to the truth first? Christina and Nicole? Fichet? Or will the truth come to them first and wreak its vengeance? We find out, but Clouzot begs us with a message at the end not to spoil it, and who am I not to honor his wishes?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/29: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
To fill in a hole in the personal canons of at least some number of Dissolvers, next week we're watching Tobe Hooper's groundbreaking horror masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Join us next Monday for murder and mayhem with this seminal work. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is available for rent on Amazon Video, where it is free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/23: Rebecca
This week the podcast crew pairs The Phantom Thread with Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. We'll have a thread on Wednesday to discuss the older film, which is sadly not available on the usual streaming services.
FOREIGN LANGUAGE FILM WEEK!
Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse) is an evil shit. He cheats on and abuses his wife and beats his mistress, and that's before we get to the myriad smaller ways he makes life miserable for the people around him. Thus it's no surprise that his mistress Nicole Horner (Simone Signoret) suggests to his wife Christina (Vera Clouzot, director H.G. Clouzot's wife) that they kill him.
What might be a little more surprising is how hesitant Christina is. But she's been terrorized by this man for eight long years, and already has a delicate constitution - a heart condition makes stress and strenuous activity dangerous. Furthermore, she is a pious Catholic woman, and killing another man - let alone her husband - would damn her. Even divorce is a step too far for her to pull the trigger - though all of their money is hers. But then Michel rapes her, and she takes the plunge. She and Nicole successfully execute a clever plan to secretly lure him away, then drown him and dump him back in the pool at their boarding school.
It looks like we've got a whodunnit on our hands, and Clouzot obligingly throws us a number of clues as to how they'll be found out on the trip back home. "Ah," you think, "the police will learn the time of the bath!" Or they'll find the gas attendant who notices the leaking trunk. Or they'll talk to the kid who saw the bottle of poison. We see what's going to happen; the women will be caught and we'll have a tragedy on our hands.
But then the body disappears. And Michel's suit comes back dry-cleaned. Did someone find the body? Is Michel alive? Are they being haunted? What was a reasonably straightforward drama of an attempt to murder and get away with it becomes an escalating exercise in tension and suspense as Nicole and Christina try to figure out what's going on and how to get out of it. Further threatening their exposure is a police commissioner Alfred Fichet (Charles Vanel), who latches on to Michel's disappearance and cannily sets about trying to track him down.
Who's going to get to the truth first? Christina and Nicole? Fichet? Or will the truth come to them first and wreak its vengeance? We find out, but Clouzot begs us with a message at the end not to spoil it, and who am I not to honor his wishes?
OUR NEXT MOVIE OF THE WEEK for 11/29: The Texas Chainsaw Massacre
UNSEEN CLASSICS WEEK!
To fill in a hole in the personal canons of at least some number of Dissolvers, next week we're watching Tobe Hooper's groundbreaking horror masterpiece, The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. Join us next Monday for murder and mayhem with this seminal work. The Texas Chainsaw Massacre is available for rent on Amazon Video, where it is free for Prime members.
NEXT PICTURE SHOW PODCAST for 1/23: Rebecca
This week the podcast crew pairs The Phantom Thread with Alfred Hitchcock's Rebecca. We'll have a thread on Wednesday to discuss the older film, which is sadly not available on the usual streaming services.