Henri Georges Clouzot's Inferno
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Mon 15 February 2010 // 20:00
(cancelled)
Tue 16 February 2010 // 20:00
Wed 17 February 2010 // 20:00
(Mon 15th - Weds 17th / 8pm / £4/3/2 TTT)
(Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medreas / 2009 / France / 94 minutes / cert 15 / subtitled)
More revealing than Lost in La Mancha, this documentary uncovers intriguing restored footage of a potential film masterpiece of experimentation that was never finished...L'Enfer (Inferno). A 1964 trumpeted masterpiece-to-be by legendary French filmmaker Henri Georges Clouzot (Wages of Fear, Les
Diaboliques). The footage was lost for 40 years and has been carefully contextualised through Bromberg and Medreas' attention to detail and interviews with original cast members.
Henri Georges Clouzot was an acclaimed director of psychological thrillers who provided healthy competition for Hitchcock, both men advancing camera technique, new lens and visual and audio tricks in pursuit of providing emotional intensity and building suspense.
L'Enfer was thwarted by spiralling costs and shut down after 3 weeks of production. The documentary reveals that Clouzot was originally promised an unlimited budget and he spent a fortune prior to filming on experimenting with new kaleidoscopic and increasingly psychedelic camera tests to capture the claustrophobic descent into madness of a paranoid husband Serge Reggiani (Romy Schneider), jealous of his young bride.
The documentary is a rare insight into the creative process of film making at the dawn of new wave cinema in a time without modern digital effects. Like many things, the film remains mythical for the fact that we just don't know if it would have been a success or just too way out.
(Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medreas / 2009 / France / 94 minutes / cert 15 / subtitled)
More revealing than Lost in La Mancha, this documentary uncovers intriguing restored footage of a potential film masterpiece of experimentation that was never finished...L'Enfer (Inferno). A 1964 trumpeted masterpiece-to-be by legendary French filmmaker Henri Georges Clouzot (Wages of Fear, Les
Diaboliques). The footage was lost for 40 years and has been carefully contextualised through Bromberg and Medreas' attention to detail and interviews with original cast members.
Henri Georges Clouzot was an acclaimed director of psychological thrillers who provided healthy competition for Hitchcock, both men advancing camera technique, new lens and visual and audio tricks in pursuit of providing emotional intensity and building suspense.
L'Enfer was thwarted by spiralling costs and shut down after 3 weeks of production. The documentary reveals that Clouzot was originally promised an unlimited budget and he spent a fortune prior to filming on experimenting with new kaleidoscopic and increasingly psychedelic camera tests to capture the claustrophobic descent into madness of a paranoid husband Serge Reggiani (Romy Schneider), jealous of his young bride.
The documentary is a rare insight into the creative process of film making at the dawn of new wave cinema in a time without modern digital effects. Like many things, the film remains mythical for the fact that we just don't know if it would have been a success or just too way out.