Véra Clouzot Movies
French actress Vera Clouzot was the wife of screenwriter/director Henri-Georges Clouzet. ~ All Movie Guide- 1960
This French-Italian romantic crime thriller is titled The Truth in English. Henri-Georges Clouzot directed sexpot Brigitte Bardot as Dominique Marceau, who is accused of killing her boyfriend. The question for the jury is whether the murder was premeditated or a crime of passion. Marceau had come from a small town to take up a sexually adventuresome life on the Left Bank in Paris. She has an affair with Gilbert Tellier (Sami Frey), the boyfriend of her sister Annie (Marie-Jose Nat). Dominique moves on to other romances, but Tellier won't let go of her. They fight and eventually separate. Tellier becomes a renowned orchestra conductor while Dominique descends into prostitution. She eventually learns that her sister and Tellier are engaged, and this knowledge leads up to the events that lead her to court. ~ Michael Betzold, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Brigitte Bardot, Charles Vanel, (more)
- 1957
Filmed in 1955, Les Espions (The Spies) was based on Midnight Patient, a novel by Egon Hostowsky. The scene is a rundown sanitarium, which is subtly but thoroughly taken over by a ruthless gang of international spies. One of the new "patients" is purportedly the inventor of a new nuclear explosive device, which of course attracts the attention of Russian and American counterspies. When it turns out that the inventor is a phony, it throws the entires espionage community into a frenzy. Before long, it is impossible to tell the good guys from the bad. As confusing as it sounds, Les Espions has the advantage of a superb international cast, including Curt Jurgens, Sam Jaffe, and Peter Ustinov. ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Curd Jürgens, Véra Clouzot, (more)
The greatest film that Alfred Hitchcock never made, Henri-Georges Clouzot's Diabolique is set in a provincial boarding school run by headmaster Michel Delasalle (Paul Meurisse). A ruthless lothario, he becomes the target of a murder plot concocted by his long-suffering invalid wife Christina (Vera Clouzot, the director's own spouse) and his latest mistress, an icy teacher played by Simone Signoret. A dark, dank thriller with a much-imitated "shock" ending, Diabolique is a masterpiece of Grand Guignol suspense. The simple murder plot goes haywire, and Michel's corpse disappears, prompting strange rumors of his reappearance which grow more and more substantial as the film careens wildly towards its breathless conclusion. Later remade as a greatly inferior 1996 Hollywood feature with Sharon Stone and Isabelle Adjani. ~ Jason Ankeny, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, (more)
Together with Diabolique, The Wages of Fear (Le Salaire de la Peur) earned Henri-Georges Clouzot the reputation as a "French Hitchcock." In truth, Clouzot's ability to sustain suspense may have even exceeded Hitchcock's; when originally released, Wages ran 155 tension-filled minutes. Based on the much-imitated novel by Georges Arnaud, the film is set in Central America. The Southern Oil Company, which pretty much rules the roost in the impoverished village of Las Piedras, sends out a call for long-distance truck drivers. Southern Oil's wages of 2,000 dollars per man are, literally, to die for -- the drivers are obliged to transport highly volatile nitroglycerine shipments across some of the most treacherous terrain on earth. Through expository dialogue, tense interactions and flashbacks, we become intimately acquainted with the four drivers who sign up for this death-defying mission: Corsican Yves Montand, Italian Folco Lulli, German Peter Van Eyck, and Frenchman Charles Vanel. The first half of the film slowly, methodically introduces the characters and their motivations. The second half -- the drive itself -- is a relentless, goosebump-inducing assault on the audience's senses. The winner of the Grand Prix at the Cannes Festival, The Wages of Fear was remade by William Friedkin as Sorcerer (1977). ~ Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide
- Starring:
- Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, (more)
