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L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno
France 2009
produced by Serge Bromberg, Marianne Lère (executive) for Lobster Films, France 2, Canal+, CinéCinéma
directed by Serge Bromberg, Ruxandra Medrea
starring Bérénice Bejo, Jacques Gamblin; archive footage: Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Dany Carrel, Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jean-Claude Bercq, Mario David, André Luguet, Maurice Garrel, Catherine Allégret, Barbara Sommers, Maurice Teynac, Henri Virlojeux, Blanchette Brunoy; interviewees: Catherine Allégret, Gilbert Amy, Inès Clouzot, Jacques Douy, Jean-Louis Ducarme, Costa-Gavras, William Lubtchansky, Nguyen Thi Lan, Joël Stein, Bernard Stora; narration by Serge Bromberg
written by Serge Bromberg, music by Bruno Alexiu
documentary
review by Mike Haberfelner
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By 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot had gathered quite a reputation as a
meticulous and effective director, and especially his films Le Salaire
de la Peur and Les Diaboliques had also put him on the map
internationally. But by 1964 it was also four years since he had made his
last movie, La Vérité, and the idea for his next one, L'Enfer,
had been gestating inside him for ages ... maybe too long. The film was to
be a psychodrama about a man (Serge Reggiani) suspecting his wife (Romy
Schneider) of infidelity, and no matter how little evidence he has even
hinting that way, he becomes totally obsessive about it. L'Enfer
was to be Clouzot's absolute masterpiece, and he went about it more
meticulous than ever before - and the storyboards for the film are
impressive already, let alone the footage that was actually shot. But his
plans went even further, he wanted to break new ground, audiovisually ...
and before long, he grew as obsessive over his film as his lead character
over his jealousy. This resulted in endless repetition of shoots,
returning to the same scenes again and again, even though they were
already announced as "in the can", and wearing his cast and crew
out beyond breaking point - and all the while, the cards were absolutely
stacked against him, as he was on a tight shooting schedule, some of the
locations would become unavailable before long, and while Clouzot's name
was big enough to get a very decent budget, money wasn't limitless,
either. And then Serge Reggiani left the set for good, allegedly due to
some illness, but sources claim he just couldn't or wouldn't take it
anymore. Clouzot hastily hired Jean-Louis Trintignant as a replacement,
but he left a few days later without shooting a single frame. And then,
Clouzot suffered a heart attack - not a fatal one (he actually died no
less than 13 years later), but it stopped the shoot for good, and what we
might have missed by the film never getting finished is left to guesswork
... This film is in part a loveletter to filmmaking in general
and to Henri-Georges Clouzot's style of making movies in particular (even
though it sugarcoats exactly nothing), and in part a piece of "what
if"-film history. From the footage available, plus newly shot footage
with Bérénice Bejo and Jacques Gamblin in the Schneider and Reggiani
roles, this documentary tries to reconstruct at least in small parts what
the movie might have looked and sounded like - and what these
scenes suggest is it would have been rather great. And that said, the
reconstruction is of course lacking and never claims to be perfect. And
still, for lovers of vintage cinema, this documentary about a movie that
never got finished is pretty much a must-have!
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