Diabolique

Director: Henri-Georges Clouzot

1955 / 117min / 35mm

An international sensation that marked Clouzot as a bona fide contender for Hitchcock’s Master of Suspense crown, the utterly unpredictable and unforgettable Diabolique puts the screws to an audience like few other films. Prep school headmaster Paul Meurisse’s reign of terror over his two colleagues/lovers—history teacher Simone Signoret and his frail wife, played by Mme. Véra Clouzot—comes to a close after a conspiracy between the two women that ends in him getting his just deserts. But when the dirty deed is done, and the two women find their victim’s body seems to have disappeared, that’s when the real psychological torment begins…

Imported 35mm print courtesy of Institut Français