A Hell of a Shoot

I was fortunate enough to see a documentary about an amazing film in a Parisian theater when it was released back in 2009.
An out of the ordinary film, imagined by an out of the ordinary man in out of the ordinary circumstances. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno/L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot Is the story of an unfinished film and its making which would be an epic adventure in itself even if the script had been a bad one. However, through what is left of the planned feature (rushes, scenario, stills, storyboards, memories of the cast and crew,...), the whole thing screams "masterpiece".

This documentary evokes the storyline, but if you wish to know what the film would have been like had it been shot the conventional way, buy the film L'Enfer released in 1994 and made by the late Claude Chabrol from this same script. The film is good, though you cannot help but to imagine what it could have been in the hands of one of the geniuses of French cinema. Someone who could turn this "not fundamentally gripping story", as described by interviewee Bernard Stora into a "new graphic universe".


Have you noticed how Clouzot's films are among the few French classic movies to get a home video release in the USA? They've been restored and put onto DVD or Blu-ray by Criterion mostly. If you get the chance, run see les Diaboliques, l'Assassin habite au 21, Quai des Orfèvres, le Corbeau, Le Salaire de la Peur... If you don't get a chance... get one anyway ! You don't know what a good French movie is if you haven't seen these.

Inferno seems to have been Clouzot's ground for experimentation : since the film deals with a husband's compulsive jealousy, Clouzot shoots the story in black and white as well as color sequences to illustrate his craziness and hallucinations... We are thus transported into a kaleidoscope where Romy Schneider (simply divine in these images) is sublimated as an actress never was before or ever will again.

A book gathering pictures and stills from the film allows a glimpse of this beauty, but the true magic is in movement.

But the focus of the documentary should not eclipse its own merits. Serge Bromberg, known to the French audience as the TV host of Cellulo (a kid show that aired restored animated shorts such as old Betty Boop cartoons on former network "la cinquième"), is a movie buff and a producer of restorations for French and International films. Thanks to this man and the Lobster film company, many films, some classic American movies, were literally saved from oblivion.

And this particular one deserved special treatment : not only many preproduction images and rushes are still extant,but the story of the shoot itself is in itself fascinating : the personality of Clouzot gave ample material for interviewees to talk about. More than fifty years after the fact, the tension is still there. A kind of curse seems to have plagued the film.

Since no sound track was preserved, the complete intent can only be partially recreated : a sound test shows that Clouzot wanted a weird sound, that would also have been new. Nevertheless, the documentary is illustrated by a wonderful score by composer Bruno Alexiu. This was a real discovery for me and I recommend the CD.

However,the film is available on DVD in France, and on Blu-ray in the USA.

That's all for today Folks!