Anyone interested in film oddities, French cinema, experimental cinema, Clouzot's other works, and Romy Schneider's films will be drawn to this. After Reggiani quit, Clouzot needed a replacement. Could he now show those young pups he was still the greatest French exponent of the seventh art? "It happened at the right moment," says Stora. These lurid colour sequences would be juxtaposed with black-and-white footage shot on location. 1963, Clouzot began work on a project called … Le documentaire est bon (image d'archives, montage et bande sonore très bien), mais je m'attendais à voir une oeuvre de fiction. Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno Is a documentary film about the unfinished film L’enfer by acclaimed director Henri-Georges Clouzot. And what on-set tortures did Clouzot have in store for Schneider? French cinema was a-tremble with expectation: could L'Enfer repeat the success of his earlier, great films? But he never finished L'Enfer. The man they are both describing is Henri-Georges Clouzot, one of France's greatest film directors, whose work plumbed the depths of misanthropy, paranoia and revenge so unremittingly that it was hard not to believe he was exploring his own psyche in public. I've certainly noticed that these visuals have been repeated in the music videos of the last few decades. Directed by Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno. Both the DVD and the Blu-ray versions feature a brand-new HD transfer of the feature film with 5.1 audio and English subtitles in addition to a number of HD special features. Film, Documentaries. It seemed clear from the beginning they didn't know what they were doing.". Four years after La Vérité, Clouzot set about making L'Enfer. Produced by Serge Bromberg. As you do. "I walked into something totally insane," he recalls. One of his first masterpieces, the 1943 film Le Corbeau, is now hailed by critics, but on release it united the French left and the pro-Nazi Vichy regime in an unlikely alliance against Clouzot's vision of pettiness and self-loathing in a small French wartime town divided by a poison-pen letter scandal. Obsessive creative film making by confirmed geniuses unhampered by financial constraints has always compelled my attention. Presumably because it would detract from the inherent drama of "The Film That Never Was" angle. The director Costa-Gavras, who worked as production assistant on L'Enfer, said: "He was criticised by the nouvelle vague for planning out everything in the script. Lucy Mazdon on Henri-Georges Clouzot, the French cinema expert and academic talks at length about the films of Clouzot and the troubled production of Inferno They Saw Inferno, a featurette including unseen material, providing further insight into the production of Inferno Filmed Introduction by Serge Bromberg Interview with Serge Bromberg Highly recommended, the film comes with a near-hour long extra documentary which contains more footage and interviews. The man they are both describing is Henri-Georges Clouzot, one of France's greatest film directors, whose work plumbed the depths of misanthropy, paranoia and revenge so … "So what?" Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2021. She entrusted the footage to Bromberg to make a film containing interviews with the crew and newly dramatised scenes based on Clouzot's script. Some have been lost to time, deteriorating in what is termed vinegar syndrome due to the fact when film canisters are opened containing these films they smell like vinegar, their images gone for eternity. Imagine my delight that SERGE BROMBERG -my nominee for the most charming, amusing and useful Frenchman working in cinema today- has gotten hold of unfinished film by the great director Henri Georges Clouzot starring Romy Schneider featuring lots of experimental color and visual effects and psychological torture all around. You bet your bootie! Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished Inferno (1964) falls into in the same mysterious category. Someone wasted time... Looks like the only reason this movie existed was to make money from american funding, add a famous french director who was good at wasting time making money for an oversized crew that otherwise would have been unemployed. Whether successful (Apocalypse Now) or failure (Day of the Locust), condemned (Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA) or downright weird (Jodorowsky's HOLY MOUNTAIN), these examples of hubris hold my attention and fill me with wonder. Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 6, 2010. A marvellous story about an anhappy director, a couple of stars, a strange lake - and a picture that was never made. He is best remembered for his work in the thriller film genre, having directed The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques, which are critically recognized as among the greatest films from the 1950s. Film-maker Bernard Stora, then an intern on the film, worked on the tests. He was taken to hospital and was compelled to abandon the film. It was about a man driven mad by the supposed infidelities of his beautiful wife. A master filmmaker’s unfinished dream. The scenes serve no purpose. In the 1950s and 60s, Henri-Georges Clouzot was one of Frances most acclaimed and successful filmmakers, a director who enjoyed massive international success with LE SALAIRE DE LA PEUR (aka THE WAGES OF FEAR) and LES DIABOLIQUES, and his gift for generating tension and suspense on screen earned him the nickname the French Hitchcock. However, despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed under the weight of arguments, technical complications and illness. He became increasingly stressed, alienated and paranoid. The list of movies that have been lost over the years is larger than one would expect. Clouzot started shooting at a lakeside hotel. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno. But now the disgracefully neglected Clouzot is being brought to new audiences with a documentary about his doomed 1964 project concerning a jealous husband's mental collapse into paranoid fantasy. It plays October 1 and 2, 2010, at the NW Film Center in Portland, OR, who provided us with this screening. That is hardly enough, even if Chabrol inherited Clouzot's mantle as the French Hitchcock. 4 out of 5 stars. With an unlimited budget, the possibilities were endless, which is one of the reasons the film production seemed to grind to a halt. L'Enfer (Inferno) was to be a sun-scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager. Terrible les sous-titres sont figés dans l'image... Ein muss für jeden Fan! It slao makes an interesting companion piece to 'Lost in La Mancha' about Terry Gilliam's collapsed Don Quixote project. The late, great Claude Chabrol directed Clouzot's script in 1992 - and it's one of his best. Understandable, but a little dishonest. Why isn't Claude Chabrol's L'enfer not mentioned? Maybe, though, it was in making these test shots that Clouzot's ambition went beyond his capacity to realise a film. During their enforced intimacy, Inès told Bromberg that she had 185 cans of film (about 13 hours) of the unfinished penultimate film. And you know what? Clouzot was known as a forbiddingly meticulous metteur en scène, storyboarding his films so intensively that actors often felt thwarted. Romy Schneider in a scene from the unfinished L'Enfer. Set in a beautiful lake side resort in the … Could that be the best thing ever? Bromberg apparently met Clouzot's widow in a broken down lift and on hearing tales about the unfinished film, immediately decided to investigate it. Reviewed in the United States on December 1, 2011. The film was called Hell, and it duly became hell. HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT"S INFERNO Blu-ray/DVD Combo was produced by Jeffrey Masino for Flicker Alley in association with MK2, Lobster Films and France 2 Cinéma. The idea was that he would later edit his way around the problem of not having his leading man on set. Many were lost in fires on the backlots of Hollywood, the incredibly flammable material used to make them making them easy prey to those fires. Reggiani, according to other crew members, had been steeling himself against being bullied on set by the notorious Clouzot and so was already in a highly strained state. The picture quality is superb throughout. Clouzot then had a virtually unlimited budget – but it only encouraged him to dream big and worry 24/7. It was called Inferno, and the unfinished film was an enormous failure. Her subsequent verbal attack on him was understandable. Today he is largely forgotten, or at best mistaken for the bumbling inspector in the Pink Panther franchise. During the filming of La Vérité (The Truth) in 1960, he wanted Brigitte Bardot to fall asleep and drool for one scene. With Romy Schneider, Bérénice Bejo, Serge Reggiani, Jacques Gamblin. L'Enfer's key protagonists - Schneider, Serge Reggiani (who played the fantasising husband) and Clouzot – are all dead. Reviewed in the United States on October 30, 2016. "Serge said he wasn't there to be insulted by a schizophrenic maniac," says Lan Nguyen, a junior member of the crew. Ein muss für jeden Fan! Recommended. After 10 days on set, Reggiani walked off, claiming to be suffering from Maltese fever, and threatening legal action. 'L'Enfer', as anyone who has seen Claude Chabrol's version of the script from 1994 will know, is a relentless, pessimistic drama of marital jealousy. What surprised me on seeing this documentary though was that Clouzot seemed to be planning to make the film a balance of realistic drama (in monochrome) and wild, experimental, often almost abstract dream-visions in colour and inverted colour. Strange how I've the feeling to have watched the completed version of Clouzot's L'Enfer now, as though the film doesn't exist at all. The scenes serve no purpose. Henri-Georges Clouzot's unfinished masterpiece, L'enfer (1964), is reconstructed in this film which is part drama and part documentary. Understandable, but a little dishonest. Je m'attendais à voir l'oeuvre originale, mais c'est un documentaire sur un film "l'enfer" qui n'a jamais été terminé. His treatment of the story is never as bravura as Clouzot's promised to be. Suzy Delair, who starred in the 1947 film Quai des Orfèvres, disclosed that he slapped her on set. This documentary about the aborted making of Henri-Georges Clouzot's ambitious and doomed film 'L'Enfer' in the early 1960s is completely riveting from start to finish. Grandios und sehr empfehlenswert. Presumably because it would detract from the inherent drama of "The Film That Never Was" angle. Set in a beautiful lake side resort in the Auvergne region of France, L'Enfer (Inferno) was to be a sun scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager … Despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed. A lie by omission, kinda. In 1963, French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot decided to make a movie that would reinvent the movies. Reviewed in the United States on June 8, 2013. It is! Clouzot also directed documentary films, including The Mystery of Picasso, which was declared a national treasure by the government of France. Perhaps – and this is just a thought – he should have taken the role himself? Bromberg apparently met Clouzot's widow in a broken down lift and on hearing tales about the unfinished film, immediately decided to investigate it. "Clouzot had the best cameramen and the most seasoned technicians. This documentary is another proof that an artist, without being bridled, causes his own destruction. On L'Enfer, he sought to revolutionise cinema by meticulously creating a film using the experimental sounds of Pierre Boulez's Ircam in Paris, and the then-voguish images of kinetic art to express his hero's increasingly wild fantasy life. Looks like the only reason this movie existed was to make money from american funding, add a famous french director who was good at wasting time making money for an oversized crew that otherwise would have been unemployed. Obsessive creative film making by confirmed geniuses unhampered by financial constraints has always compelled my attention. Sat 7 Nov 2009 19.50 EST. This documentary about the aborted making of Henri-Georges Clouzot's ambitious and doomed film 'L'Enfer' in the early 1960s is completely riveting from start to finish. Soyez avisé. Others are just never found. rigitte Bardot called him "a negative being, for ever at odds with himself and the world around him". The shoot became as tense as a countdown Hollywood thriller. The man they are both describing is Henri-Georges Clouzot, one of France's greatest film directors, whose work plumbed the depths of misanthropy, paranoia and revenge so unremittingly that it was hard not to believe he was exploring his own psyche in public. (26) IMDb 7.5 1 h 39 min 2009 16+. The disc looks and sounds great, with the original material polished up nicely other than some minor jaggies I noticed here and there, although it might have been the TV I … Another actor described him as "an interfering man who wanted every actor under his control". Würde ich sofort wieder kaufen! Once on set, hell began in earnest. Philip French. The examples of the colour experiments often look like miniature art films in their own right, and are perhaps even more jaw-dropping here than they would have been in the final cut of a finished film. "He slapped others as well … He was tough but I'm not about to complain.". The footage, forgotten for over fifty years, were found, and film archivist Serge Bromberg uncovered a treasure trove of breathtaking imagery, … They turned out to be sleeping pills. Clouzot had been consumed by the very hell he tried, and failed, to show on screen. This has been corrected. The test shots for Clouzot's L'Enfer that appear in the new documentary show that he envisaged using kinetic art in a way that parallels how Hitchcock had used Salvador Dalí's surrealist dream sequences almost 20 years earlier on Spellbound. I love you! Jamie S. Rich is … Clouzot was one of France’s most distinguished and respected filmmakers, with a turbulent filmmaking history but more than a few enduring classics to his name. In 1968's La Prisonnière, he used some of those weirdo kinetic art shots he had filmed for L'Enfer. Reggiani found himself running for 10 miles a day up vertiginous mountain roads – great footage, but the ordeal took its toll. Thirty years after Clouzot's death in 1977, his widow, Inès de Gonzalez, found herself trapped in a broken lift with a young film-maker. The result is the presentation of a series of scenes and tests filmed by Clouzot and unseen for decades, interspersed with interviews from the technicians who worked on the film. Anyone who believes that directorial self-indulgence is a new phenomenon will find Serge Bromberg's documentary, "Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno," to … However, despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed under the weight of arguments, technical … The result is the presentation of a series of scenes and tests filmed by Clouzot and unseen for decades, interspersed with interviews from the technicians who worked on the film. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno is released next Friday. Clouzot now decided it was too late to hire a replacement. And you know what? Beginning his film career as a screenwriter, Henri-Georges Clouzot switched over to directing and in 1943 had the distinction of having his film Le Corbeau (1943) banned by both the German forces occupying France and the Free French forces fighting them, but for different reasons. It originally said that Simone Signoret played the wronged wife in Les Diaboliques. In the 1950s and '60s, Henri-Georges Clouzot was one of France's most acclaimed and successful filmmakers, a director who enjoyed massive international success with Le Salaire de la Peur (aka The Wages of Fear) and Les Diaboliques, and his gift for generating tension and suspense onscreen earned him the nickname "the French Hitchcock. We wonder if had to be made with Columbia for this footage, that they spent so much money on back in 1964. It was brave story to tell in a France torn apart by war; Le Corbeau was pulled from cinemas, Clouzot was fired from the Nazi-owned Continental studios and, after the war, received a lifetime ban (rescinded in 1947) from the French film industry for working with the Nazis. I think Inferno would have been a classic, especially with it's colorful visuals, and I'm glad this documentary showed us that. Whether successful (Apocalypse Now) or failure (Day of the Locust), condemned (Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA) or downright weird (Jodorowsky's HOLY MOUNTAIN), these examples of hubris hold my attention and fill me with wonder. Toll inszeniert und mit hoher Qualität! Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno is out now on Blu-Ray in the UK, released by Arrow Academy. Romy Schneider in a scene from the unfinished L'Enfer. Clouzot would make only one more film before his death in 1977. A lie by omission, kinda. Delair told one interviewer. In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of thriller masterpieces Les Diaboliques and The Wages of Fear, began work on his most ambitious film yet. In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of thriller masterpieces Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear, began work on his most ambitious film yet. One of L'Enfer's problems was that Clouzot had by then become notorious as a director with a taste for violence and betrayal – and not just in his films. This documentary was really interesting, and I came away from it with an appreciation for Clouzot (whom I'd never heard of) but also feel a little wary of his obsessive perfectionism that seems to have sabotaged the original movie. Moreover, French cinema had been revolutionised by the nouvelle vague since his last film, and the likes of Godard and Truffaut had arguably eclipsed Clouzot. Jean-Louis Trintignant (male foil in the 1956 Bardot vehicle And God Created Woman, and soon to be a star of European art cinema) was invited to the set and was wooed by Clouzot into taking the part – but decided against it. Time Out says. I enjoyed it. But we also have something extra: Claude Chabrol's 1994 film based on Clouzot's script, also called L'Enfer, starring Emmanuelle Béart as the flirtatious wife and François Cluzet as the paranoid husband. The result was Inferno, a train-wreck of a production that was never completed and drove Clouzot to a heart attack. Rarely do we see new outtakes preserved as well as this. Clouzot was hated and feted in equal measure. It is! 4 out of 5 stars. You bet your bootie! This article was amended on Friday 30 October 2009. But she was not the only actress he made suffer. Reviewed in the United States on August 4, 2015. Grandios und sehr empfehlenswert! Reviewed in the United States on March 5, 2018. But there was a difficulty. And then one day, while he was filming Romy Schneider and Dany Carel having a lesbian tryst on a boat on the lake, he had a heart attack. L'Enfer (Inferno) was to be a sun-scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager. Like “Lost in La Mancha,’’ “Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno’’ is a documentary that re-creates a lost film and the disaster of its (un)making. How did it come about? Another actor described him as "an interfering man who wanted every actor under his control". Clouzot cast 26-year-old Romy Schneider, who, though Austrian, was then one of France's leading film stars. Henri-Georges Clouzot was a French film director, screenwriter and producer. Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea's new documentary anatomises that cinematic nightmare– and it makes painful viewing, though it is filled with tantalising images of what might have been. In terms of violence to his female stars, Clouzot was a monstre sacré akin to his contemporary, Alfred Hitchcock, whom he admired and whose psychological thrillers of the 1950s and 60s bear close comparison with Clouzot's greatest films – The Wages of Fear (1953), starring Yves Montand, and Les Diaboliques (1955), with Véra Clouzot as a wronged wife who conspires with his mistress, Simone Signoret, to murder her husband. Could that be the best thing ever? It is also perfectly titled. It is this sort of film that makes up this film. (International sales: MK2, Paris.) This documentary presents Inferno’s incredible expressionistic original rushes, screen tests, and on-location footage, whilst also reconstructing Clouzot’s original vision, and … After a few weeks of studio tests in Paris and 10 days on location, Clouzot abandoned it. Brigitte Bardot called him "a negative being, for ever at odds with himself and the world around him". Henri-Georges Clouzot, Writer: Le salaire de la peur. Brilliant, thrilling, fascinating and gorgeous! Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 29, 2010. Notoriously insomniac at the best of times, he rewrote the film through the nights and shot new footage during the days. This documentary about the aborted making of Henri-Georges Clouzot's ambitious and doomed film 'L'Enfer' in the early 1960s is completely riveting from start to finish. In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot's production of L'Enfer came to a halt. The big word of the epoch was 'improvise'. Imagine my delight that SERGE BROMBERG -my nominee for the most charming, amusing and useful Frenchman working in cinema today- has gotten hold of unfinished film by the great director Henri Georges Clouzot starring Romy Schneider featuring lots of experimental color and visual effects and psychological torture all around. He had a nice line about that: 'I improvise on paper.'". In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s production of L’Enfer came to a halt. Thank you Serge Bromberg! He had insisted that, in order to demonstrate the husband's jealousy, Reggiani would have to run behind a camera car repeatedly, ostensibly following Schneider's car. Clouzot had only 20 days to wrap the project. I enjoyed it. The producers, though, saw rushes of this stuff and loosened the purse strings: they saw genius where Stora saw insanity. Masterpiece. "Things weren't going well.". The list of movies that have been lost over the years is larger than one would expect. The playback through Fandor is out of sync .. the video and subtitles appear to be playing in fast forward. Reviewed in the United States on August 12, 2019. So he gave her some pills saying they were painkillers. Someone wasted time putting this together. Called L'Enfer (Hell), the film became a real hell for the director and everyone on set. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno is in limited release. Arrow Academy's Blu-ray of Inferno (L'enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot) is a fine encoding of this latter-day documentary. Many were lost in fires on the backlots of Hollywood, the incredibly flammable material used to make them making them easy prey to those fires. Obsessive creative film making by confirmed geniuses unhampered by financial constraints has always compelled my attention. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno. How had Clouzot upset Reggiani? Bardot had to have her stomach pumped. This documentary was really interesting, and I came away from it with an appreciation for Clouzot (whom I'd never heard of) but also feel a little wary of his obsessive perfectionism that seems to have sabotaged the original movie. It didn't revolutionise cinema, and was forgotten even in a France that cherishes its cinema. Synopsis In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s production of L’Enfer starring Romy Schneider came to a halt. The Clouzot estate must have stored them well. But this 1964 flop by Henri-Georges Clouzot shouldn't blind us to his genius, Thwarted revolution … Romy Schneider in L'Enfer. The documentary is unique in that the film uses the footage and tests that Clouzot shot along with the small amount of existing audio … Despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed. In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of thriller masterpieces Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear, began work on his most ambitious film yet. But what we learn from the documentary is that Clouzot upset his leading man much more than his leading lady. Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno France Production: A Lobster Films presentation in co-production with France 2 Cinema. © 1996-2021, Amazon.com, Inc. or its affiliates, Reviewed in the United States on February 14, 2019. The lake, which figured in most scenes, was scheduled to be drained for a hydroelectric generating project.