Henri-Georges Clouzot

Diabolique

Diabolique

Before Psycho, Peeping Tom, and Repulsion, there was Diabolique. This thriller from Henri‑Georges Clouzot, which shocked audiences in Europe and the U.S., is the story of two women—the fragile wife and the willful mistress of the sadistic headmaster of a boys' boarding school—who hatch a daring revenge plot. With its unprecedented narrative twists and terrifying images, Diabolique is a heart-grabbing benchmark in horror filmmaking, featuring outstanding performances by Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, and Paul Meurisse.

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Film Info

  • France
  • 1955
  • 117 minutes
  • Black & White
  • 1.33:1
  • French
  • Spine #35

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Selected-scene commentary by French-film scholar Kelley Conway
  • New video introduction by Serge Bromberg, codirector of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s "Inferno"
  • New video interview with novelist and film critic Kim Newman
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Terrence Rafferty

New cover by David Plunkert

Purchase Options

BLU-RAY SPECIAL EDITION FEATURES

  • New digital restoration, with uncompressed monaural soundtrack
  • Selected-scene commentary by French-film scholar Kelley Conway
  • New video introduction by Serge Bromberg, codirector of Henri-Georges Clouzot’s "Inferno"
  • New video interview with novelist and film critic Kim Newman
  • Original theatrical trailer
  • PLUS: An essay by film critic Terrence Rafferty

New cover by David Plunkert

Diabolique
Cast
Simone Signoret
Nicole Horner
Véra Clouzot
Christina Delassalle
Paul Meurisse
Michel Delassalle
Charles Vanel
Alfred Fichet
Jean Brochard
Plantiveau
Pierre Larquey
Monsieur Drain
Michel Serrault
Monsieur Raymond
Credits
Director
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Producer
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Based on the novel Celle qui n’était plus by
Pierre Boileau
Based on the novel Celle qui n’était plus by
Thomas Narcejac
Screenplay and dialogue by
Henri-Georges Clouzot
Screenplay and dialogue by
Jérôme Géronimi
with
René Masson
with
Frédéric Grendel
Director of photography
Armand Thirard
Art director
Léon Barsacq
Sound
William-Robert Sivel
Editing
Madeleine Gug
Music
Georges van Parys

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Three Reasons: Diabolique
Three Reasons: Diabolique
Sneak Peeks — Apr 12, 2011
Diabolique: Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts
Diabolique: Murder Considered as One of the Fine Arts

Henri-Georges Clouzot’s cool, clammy, twisty 1955 thriller is an almost perfect movie about a very nearly perfect murder.

By Terrence Rafferty

Essays — May 16, 2011
Diabolique
Diabolique
After finishing Diabolique, heralded French director-screenwriter Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907–1977) confessed that all he had intended was to make a picture that would “amuse myself” and please a young girl who hid under the covers and asked he…

By Danny Peary

Essays — Feb 2, 1999
David Plunkert Shares His Passion for Color and Shape

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David Plunkert Shares His Passion for Color and Shape

The graphic designer behind our covers for Diabolique and The Tin Drum takes us inside his Baltimore studio and his idea-driven creative process.

Criterion Designs — Jun 15, 2022
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A politically engaged actor who refused to be commodified, this French icon showcased her piercing intelligence throughout four decades of unforgettable performances.

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Clouzot at Bryn Mawr

Repertory Picks

Clouzot at Bryn Mawr

The Bryn Mawr Film Institute, in Pennsylvania, is screening Henri-Georges Clouzot’s twisted thriller Diabolique, about the murder of a sadistic headmaster by his submissive wife and his malevolent mistress.

In Theaters — Oct 20, 2016

Explore

Henri-Georges Clouzot

Writer, Producer, Director

Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot

One of the few contemporaries of Hitchcock who gave the Master of Suspense a run for his money, Henri-Georges Clouzot dealt in misanthropic, black-humored tales of greed, jealousy, murder, immorality, and revenge. Though perhaps best known for 1955’s Gothic noir Diabolique, one of the most influential thrillers of all time and a film that Hitchcock himself admired (and wished to outdo), Clouzot first made his mark in French cinema in the 1940s. His politically charged, 1943 Le corbeau was a highly controversial story of a poison-pen letter that uncovers the dirty secrets of an entire town; viewed in retrospect, it’s Clouzot’s first important statement on the corruption of community. Subsequent Clouzot films would be built on the same theme in different milieus: the entertainment underworld of Quai des Orfèvres, the mercenary imperialism of the white-knuckle adventure The Wages of Fear. Once widely misunderstood—the director was charged with Nazi sympathies for Le corbeau and was derided by the French New Wave—the work of Henri-Georges Clouzot today looks far ahead of its time.

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