Click here to copy URL

Diabolique

Les diaboliques

1955

H.G. Clouzot

Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel ...

8.0

11,041

Mystery. Thriller. Horror Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse), the headmaster of a provincial boarding school, becomes the target of a murder plot concocted by his wife Christina (Véra Clouzot) and his mistress (Simone Signoret).

	Author	Review
United States	Roger Ebert rogerebert.com	"[It creates] a diabolical double-reverse plot that keeps the audience guessing right up to the thoroughly implausible final scene (…) Rating: ★★★½ (out of 4)"	POS
United Kingdom	Peter Bradshaw The Guardian	"A powerful performance by Simone Signoret (...) Satisfying, elegant and nasty (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Bosley Crowther The New York Times	"The writing and the visual construction are superb, and the performance by top - notch French actors on the highest level of sureness and finesse."	POS
United Kingdom	Sukhdev Sandhu Telegraph	"One of the best Hitchcock films Hitchcock never made, it’s a mesmerising thriller (...) It’s a diabolical masterpiece (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Kim Newman Empire	"It has several strong moments of physical horror (...) but roots its nastiness in everyday cruelty (...) A great 'hold your breath' suspense film that shocked the world and became a classic (…) Rating: ★★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United Kingdom	Dave Calhoun Time Out	"Devilishly suspenseful, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s thriller (...) has all the dark humour and clever tension of a Hitchcock (...) [Clouzot] maintains a sense of dread and mystery until the end"	POS
United States	Variety	"Clouzot’s interest in terror and human dreariness for its own sake has robbed this of intrinsic honesty. He has gotten a fine, if spotty performance from his real wife, Vera"	NEU
United States	Chuck Bowen Slant	"It conjures an atmosphere of suffocating rot that’s so palpable, in fact, that the murder plot is in many ways its least disturbing element (…) Rating: ★★★★ (out of 5)"	POS
United States	Marjorie Baumgarten Austin Chronicle	"'Diabolique's study of murder and deception is masterfully controlled by Clouzot (...) Clouzot's black-and-white images are marvelously crafted"	POS
United States	Dave Kehr Chicago Reader	"The film is cruel, sour, and—unfortunately—very effective."	POS

Return to movie

We encourage you to check the reviews' original sources. Intellectual property rights of these reviews belong to their authors and/or the correspondent media from which they have been extracted. If you'd like to help us to add more reviews to your favorite movies, just send us a message.