Les Diaboliques (1955) Blu-ray

After the success of The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) Henri-Georges Clouzot cemented his reputation with his masterpiece, Les Diaboliques.

Based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (who also wrote the novel on which Hitchcock s Vertigo is based), Les diaboliques tells the story of a sadistic headmaster (Paul Meurisse) who brutalises his wife and mistress (Véra Clouzot and Simone Signoret) and their plot to murder him. Superbly edited with nail-biting suspense, the two women murder the headmaster and dump the body in the swimming pool, but when the pool is drained no corpse is found. An unsettling and beautifully-paced study of betrayal, mistrust and guilt, Les diaboliques is atmospherically shot in black and white, its murky tones hauntingly echo the moral ambiguity of its principals.

An acknowledged influence on Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick among others, Les diaboliques is presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the world.

SPECIAL EDITION CONTENTS:

Brand new High Definition digital transfer of the original negative presented on Blu-ray

Uncompressed original PCM mono audio

Optional English subtitles

Audio commentary by Susan Hayward, author of Les Diaboliques (Cine-file French Film Guides)

Filmed interview with Ginette Vincendeau, French cinema scholar, critic and author

Original Trailer

Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Samuel Webster

Booklet featuring new writing on the film by critic Brad Stevens, and a re-printed interview with Henri GeorgesClouzot by Paul Schrader, illustrated with archive stills and rare original set designs by Léon Barsacq