Originally released in the U.S. under its French title L'enfer, this 1995 psychological thriller was directed by Claude Chabrol from an original screenplay by filmmaker Henri-George Clouzot. Clouzot attempted to film it in the early 1960s but had to abandon it when the production spiraled out of his control and he was incapacitated by a heart attack. Chabrol revived the project decades later on a much smaller scale at the urging of Clouzot's widow, rewriting the screenplay to favor his own thematic preoccupation with guilt and the reverberations of one's action on loved ones.
Francois Cluzet stars a happily married man with a beautiful, younger wife (Emmanuelle Beart) and an adorable son, running a gorgeous little resort getaway. Then he becomes convinced she is having an affair and his jealousy spins to insane proportions. Hallucinations and nightmares twist his dementia until he imagines her sleeping with every man in sight and his obsessive spying turns her life into a living hell (which, coincidentally, is the loose translation of the film’s title).
Chabrol's film is less a thriller than a psychological study and he injects Clouzot’s dark, misanthropic tale with a soupçon of Hitchcock’s voyeuristic obsessions and with his own empathy for the tormented husband. It makes him far more interesting than merely a madman or a bully—his pathological jealousy spins out of control in a chilling conclusion that leaves the viewers uncomfortably nestled in his madness. It comes at the expense of his wife, who is presented as both a sexy young object of desire and an angelic innocent whose loyalty and love is almost sacrificial.
Chabrol's film faced charges of misogyny upon release largely because Chabrol remained steadfast in his portrayal of Paul not as a monster but as a victim of madness. Ultimately, that’s what gives L’Enfer its unsettling power. In 2009, Serge Bromberg released the documentary L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot, which presents unseen footage filmed by Clouzot and interviews with his collaborators to explore Clouzot's original ambitions for the film, and what ultimately doomed his project. Clouzot's expressionist imagery and cinematic experiments reveal a very different intent than Chabrol's take on the screenplay, which makes for a fascinating contrast.
In French with English subtitles, unrated with brief nudity and sexuality. It's part of the Arrow Blu-ray box set "Lies and Deceit: Five Films by Claude Chabrol." Features the film's Blu-ray debut in a new 4K restoration, with commentary by Alexandra Heller-Nicholas and Josh Nelson, an introduction by Joel Magny, archival select scene commentary by Chabrol, and archival interviews with Chabrol and producer Marin Karmitz. A previous DVD release is long out of print. Recommended for classic and international film collections and Claude Chabrol or French film programming.
Discover more titles for your film collection in our list of world cinema movies.