(Note: I usually don’t give
spoiler warnings, because I don’t care about spoilers. However,
this is the rare film in which I would actually encourage people to
avoid spoilers. You have been warned!)
Les Diaboliques is considered
something of a precursor to Psycho. It’s not hard to see
why, given that the film literally ends with a title card asking the
audience not to reveal the ending to their friends; a trick Hitchcock
would pull off five years later. Beyond that, you have a twist
ending, gray morality, a distrust of authority, and some truly lovely
cinematography.
I feel that I was a bit lucky with this
movie. I usually don’t bother to avoid spoilers. (Which is why I
have no hesitation to spoil any movie I review). But solely by
chance, the original 100 Scariest Movie Moments half-spoiled
the final twist, leaving me expecting a far more contrived ending
than what I received. I knew Michel Delassalle (Paul Meurisse) was
faking his death to scare his frail wife Christina (Vera Clouzot)
into having a fatal heart attack. What I didn’t realize was that
his mistress, Nicole (Simone Signoret) was conspiring with him. This
twist made the details of his faked death far more believable, and
the movie far more enjoyable.
I feel a little like I should have had
at least some inkling of the ending, and I attribute the fact that I
didn’t primarily to brilliant performances by Clouzot and Signoret.
Nicole presents such a hardened, honest, matter-of-fact figure to
Christina’s religious naïveté that we never really think to
question her. Some have suggested that they were intended to be
lesbian lovers, but I don’t really see that. Rather, I see Nicole,
at least as she initially presents herself, more in the role of a big
sister or parental figure, trying to convince Christina to act in her
own best interest, in spite of Christina’s fear of both legal and
spiritual retribution.
The conflict of the movie unfolds quite
naturally. Michel is the headmaster of a boarding school he runs
with Christina’s inherited money. The school is not very
profitable, but Christina insists on keeping it open over his
objections. Nicole works at the school as a teacher, and became
Michel’s mistress since Michel has become frustrated with
Christina. The marital problems stem from Christina's frailty,
caused by a heart condition, and her conservative values. However,
Christina’s strong Catholic beliefs forbid a divorce, and Michel
won’t give up the money.
As Michel’s relationship with Nicole
appears to weaken, Nicole approaches Christina, warning her that she
believes Michel intends to end their marriage via murder. While he
hasn’t said so explicitly, she feels that many of the references he
makes to her heart condition imply a desire to see her dead. So
Nicole convinces Christina to help her in murdering Michel first.
The plan is actually quite logical, and
how it fails is evident only in retrospect, knowing that Nicole is in
on it. Michel is lured to Nicole’s apartment with the threat of a
divorce and “tricked” into drinking a “sedative” provided by
Nicole. He’s then “drowned” in the bathtub (he has a history
as a competitive swimmer, making this part possible to fake), and
transported back to the school in a chest (which Nicole primarily
handles, making it easier to cover up involuntary movements). They
then dump him in the pool, and act like nothing happened.
Eventually, Michel’s lighter is found
in the pool, but his body is not. The obvious assumption the women
make is that someone took the body to blackmail them. But at this
point, the movie begins to play with genres, giving hints that it
might veer into supernatural territory. The suit in which Michel was
drowned is returned from the dry cleaners, who report receiving it
from a man of his description. A child at the school, known for
being a compulsive liar, also claims to have seen Michel, who
punished the boy for breaking a window with his slingshot.
In this section, the movie effectively
sets the audience up for what TvTropes would call a Kansas City
Shuffle: we know we’re being conned and that a twist is coming, but
we’re mislead as to what the con is. We expect either blackmail or
a ghost, so the idea of Nicole and Michel conspiring simply doesn’t
occur to us.
Eventually, the confusion regarding the
missing body, and other strange occurrences drives a wedge between
Christina and Nicole, and Nicole says that she’s leaving. Later
that evening, Christina hears strange noises that lure her out of
bed. Then, she’s lured into Michel’s office by the sound of his
typewriter, and finds that someone has typed his name in a variety of
fonts. When the lights suddenly go out, she runs into the bathroom,
only to see his corpse in the tub, rising from it, causing a fatal
heart attack.
At this point we’re treated to four
twists crammed into the last five minutes. The first two I’ve
already covered. Michel removes the contacts that made his eyes
appear dead, showing himself to still be alive. He then opens the
bathroom door for Nicole to come in. They kiss, and briefly discuss
how wealthy they are, before a detective, Alfred Fichet, walks in to
arrest them both. In the final scene, one of the school employees
talks to the young boy from earlier, who tells him that Christina
gave him back his slingshot, which Michel took earlier.
The first two twists I’ve already
covered, but the last two still require some discussion. I haven’t
mentioned Alfred Fichet yet, because I felt he needed to be talked
about independently. During all of his scenes I had a single thought
about him: Wow, this guy reminds me of Columbo. And Googling
it, I confirmed that yes, the character of Columbo was inspired by
Fichet.
Fichet approaches Christina earlier in
the film, saying that he wants to help her find her husband. He acts
like a buffoon for most of his scenes, giving the impression that
he’s a harmless idiot, until the end when he’s solved the
mystery. He even smokes a cigar. If you’ve seen a single episode
of Columbo, you’ll recognize him.
Fichet actually gets Christina to
confess after Nicole leaves, before the final confrontation. He
breaks into her apartment and tells her he knows where her husband
is. Christina then gives a tearful confession, admitting that she
and Nicole killed him. Fichet takes the confession
matter-of-factually, and leaves, telling Christina that she’ll be
exonerated by morning. As with Columbo, it’s ambiguous how much he
knows and when he knows it, but we recognize a brilliant use of
obfuscating stupidity by a skilled detective. I suspect that the
arrest was added in because the censors wouldn’t allow the villains
to get away Scot-free, but the character created by this requirement
works so well that it’s difficult to see fault with it.
The final twist just annoys me, though.
The child has already been stated to be a compulsive liar, so we’re
left to debate whether he saw Christina’s ghost, Christina faked
her death, or if he was just making things up. But why do we have
this twist at all? It’s pointless! It has nothing to do with
anything else in the movie, and feels unbelievably tacked on.
This film is no Psycho, but I do
recommend it. The build-up is excellent, as we feel the tension of
Christina’s guilt and watch the plan begin to unravelling. The
ending turns this tension into true terror, with the bathtub scene
being frightening, even if you know what’s happening.
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