L'enfer (1994)

User Rating:

7.0/10   

Director:

Claude Chabrol

Writers:

Claude Chabrol (writer)
Henri-Georges Clouzot (1964 script)

Release Date:

November 1994 (USA)

Genre:

Crime | Drama

Plot:

Paul, an irritable and stressed-out hotel manager, begins to gradually develop paranoid delusions about his wife's infidelity...

Plot Keywords:

Jealousy | Hotel | Insanity | Locked Room | Cuckold

Cast

Emmanuelle Béart	...	Nelly
François Cluzet	...	Paul Prieur
Nathalie Cardone	...	Marylin
André Wilms	...	Doctor Arnoux
Marc Lavoine	...	Martineau
Christiane Minazzoli	...	Mme Vernon
Dora Doll	...	Mme Chabert
Mario David	...	Duhamel
Jean-Pierre Cassel	...	M. Vernon
Thomas Chabrol	...	Julien
Noël Simsolo	...	M. Chabert
Yves Verhoeven	...	Young Boy
Amaya Antolin	...	Mariette
Jean-Claude Barbier	...	M. Pinoiseau
Claire De Beaumont	...	Mme Rudemont

Also Known As:

Hell
Jealousy
Torment

Runtime:

100 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Color

Sound Mix:

Stereo

Certification:

Australia:MA | Portugal:M/16 | Spain:13 | UK:15 | Germany:16 | Argentina:16

Filming Locations:

Castelnaudary, Aude, France

Company:

MK2 Productions

Movie Connections:

Remake of L'enfer (1964)

Soundtrack:

L'enfer de mes nuits

Compelling

Paul, an owner of a lakeside hotel and his naturally flirtatious and beautiful wife, Nelly seems to have it all, yet beneath the rosy facade there lurks a rotting jealousy, eating away inside Paul's unbalanced mind. This is the basic premise of Claude Chabrol's adaptation of Henri-Georges Clouzot 1964 script. The film hinges on two interrelated questions. Was Nell really unfaithful with many men, or was it all in Paul's unbalanced mind? Chabrol projects these anxieties from Paul's point of view,leaving the viewer to judge if there is any substance to Paul's jealousy.

The film is compelling and the acting is excellent, but we never know the real, underlying cause of Paul's frightening descent to madness because Charbol complacently skips through the early years of their marriage within the first six minutes. yet all of the sudden Paul is talking with an inner voice in his head, out of nowhere. This was one of the film's biggest weaknesses and perhaps Clouzot's original story was not "psychological" enough for Chabrol to work through in his usual, thorough fashion.Moreover, we also never know if Nelly really was unfaithful, thus compounding the ambiguity of Paul's jealousy.

Sometimes the direction is deliberately vague in projecting Paul's point of view, blurring the distinction between reality and fantasy. Moreover, the 1960s feel of the script is retained by Chabrol in his modern-day remaking of the values of that era in the early 1990s. as a result, L'enfer is strangely old-fashioned in its portrayal of women and men. The sets and costumes feel anachronistic, esp Nelly and her flirty friend. Only Paul and his doctor seem to exist in the early 1990s.

The open-ended existentialist non-ending,was the only way out for Chabrol and Cluzot, but perhaps by negating the climax, Chabrol did himself a disservice in not resolving the film's many ambiguities. But perhaps that's what Clouzot's intention was. All in all, the film is a celluloid embodiment of Satrte's famous line "Hell is other people".