Hell (1994) User Reviews (38)

Maleficent obsession.

[dbdumonteil · 8/10 · 12 August 2001]

Among all the directors labelled "nouvelle vague",Claude Chabrol was arguably the one who had more affinities with the precedent generation so despised by a lot of his sixties colleagues.And the generation before Chabrol included the genius Henri-George Clouzot.So,to film "les diaboliques"'s director lost screenplay,Chabrol was ideal.Both he and Clouzot mix detective stories,social satire and psychological studies. "L'enfer" might be one of Chabrol's finest achievements.François Cluzet,in a lifetime performance,portrays a jealous man-recalling Bunuel's hero in "El'(1952)-,but his jealousy verges on madness.Little by little,with small touches,we see this maleficent obsession grow like a cancer,destroying everything,his wife's sincere love(well played by Emmanuelle Béart),his personality,his job.And see how Chabrol masters space.At the beginning,the action takes place in a wonderful lake setting.Then we do not get out of the hotel owned by Cluzet,with its dangerous corridors .And in the final sequences ,the director confines his two characters to a doctor office or their bedroom. Cluzet's madness and its inexorable progression are masterfully shown too.First,only some gestures,some voice inflexions.Then he begins to follow her everywhere .Then come the hallucinations:the amateur movie projected onto a small screen in the restaurant is the film's apex and should be part of a Chabrol anthology.Interior voices obsess the unfortunate hero,and every time he looks himself in a mirror,he sees an irrational world,this world he lives in,this world he believes in.No longer able to communicate with the normal one,he forces the other ones (his wife being first in line)to enter his.And we are not sure,at the end of the movie,that Béart is not on the other side of the mirror too.

Two private jokes: In the first sequence,Béart puts her hair in braids,and she resembles Vera Clouzot in "les diaboliques".When the young couple comes back to the restaurant after the wedding,the little accordion tune "les couleurs du temps" that you hear was written by Guy Béart,Emmanuelle's father a long time ago.

NB.Clouzot's version,which he began to film circa 1963,featured Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani.(although the film was never completed,it has a page on IMDb)

Enigmatic...?

[nin-chan · 7/10 · 12 September 2007]

If this film represents a faithful adherence to Clouzot's original script, one would have to say that the story may be regarded as the absolute apex/exemplar of Clouzot's understanding of psychology. At the same time, L'Enfer is absolutely a Claude Chabrol film, and the fact that it rests comfortably in either canon attests to the lasting parallels between the two masters.

As with all of Chabrol's foremost creations, this is incisive social commentary masquerading under the banal tag of "psychological thriller". Though the film can be enjoyed without any deeper engagement with or meditation on its themes of Othello-esquire obsession/jealousy, I think some thought will reveal it to be a far more rewarding film than a superficial viewing might suggest.

Situating/contextualizing the film in Chabrol's vast corpus of work, one finds in "L'Enfer" another nightmarish journey into the hazards of bourgeois sterility. Though one might say that the work is naturalistic in some respects (the intense violence that simmers beneath the genteel exterior is revealed in his disdainful disparagement of the neighboring competition), that the overreaching, emotionally volatile and profoundly sensitive husband is particularly prone to this type of neurosis, the telling proclamation of "sans fin" that closes the film suggests that the narrative is not one of isolated particulars, but a general affliction, a self-perpetuating tragedy engendered by flawed social mechanisms.

Throughout his career, Chabrol has been especially critical of the life-denying entropy and suffocating claustrophobia of bourgeois marriage, a plight where the insatiably voracious woman feels her haplessness and subordination most acutely. This, in some respects, might be his finest evaluation of marriage and erotic love in general. The tensions explored throughout the film are far from novel, again we bear witness to the irresolvable Romantic preoccupation, the desire to possess and identify with a subjective other. Again, as with "Les Bonnes Femmes", we see the carnivorous, destructive male principle, eager to subdue, asphyxiate, smother and ultimately devour irrepressible femininity.

Yet lest we distance ourselves from Paul's evident psychosis, Chabrol implicates marriage as an institution endorsed by society at large. Note Paul's perverse, masochistic pleasure in fabricating these outlandish fantasies, particularly the wild reverie of Emanuelle Beart entertaining the entire hotel in the attic. Is this the only way to preserve erotic love in the nauseating ennui of marriage, to continually reinvent the Other and, through wild imaginings, make him/her a stranger so as to escape the concreteness of conjugal reality? On another level, the film might be read as an Adlerian representation of modern neurosis, of a nervous man who is inadequately equipped for the rigours of social expectation, whose overreaching demand for absolute order and unity invariably drive him to dementia and a flight from reality. Chimeras of success and masculine authority elude him, undermined by personal insecurities and a willful, independent wife. How then, does he compensate for his lack of control? Refuge in the sadistic alternate reality that he manufactures throughout the movie.

Technically, this movie is almost immaculate, featuring outstanding performances (Emmanuelle Beart is a force of nature) and repeated viewings affirm that it is a movie of great understanding. I'm not sure if this review made any sort of sense at all, but at the end of the day all I can do is urge you to immerse yourself in "L'Enfer".

Grand Guinol of Love

[antcol8 · 7/10 · 4 June 2006]

Chabrol will always be Chabrol - sometimes less, rarely if ever more (maybe in La Femme Infidele...). But he's Chabrol, God bless him: love, lakes, bourgeoisie, jealousy, sex, meals, bonhomie, kids who appear and disappear, murderous thoughts, weird surrealism right before the end. You can set your watch by him. Emmanuel Beart is unbelievably sexy. And the film is a perfect illustration of some (dimly understood by me) Lacanian theories: sexual intercourse's dream of fusion is impossible, for example. Having possessed the ideal object, Cluzet knows that, in fact, one possesses nothing. Everything that makes Beart alluring also makes her dangerous in that she freely chooses...whatever she freely chooses. Freely choosing fidelity means that any moment you can freely choose infidelity. So a guy just can't win. That's why DeCordova in Bunuel's El (adroitly cited by another one of the readers here) pulls out the needle and thread. This film has none of the humor and acuity of Bunuel's neglected masterpiece. But it's Chabrol, and he's doing his thing. That ain't nothing...As a study of a man's descent from jealousy into madness, however, the film is powerful and well made but not super subtle.

A man's own personal hell .

[Doctor_Bombay · 5 March 1999]

Reality, or fantasy is the immediate question posed in Claude Chabrol's L'Enfer. The man who carries the mantel the 'French Hitchcock' Chabrol delivers a taut, bare to the bones thriller.

When husband Paul (Francois Cluzet) begins to believe his beautiful, flirtatious wife Nelly (Emmanuelle Beart) is fooling around, his psychological demise is quick, and intense.

Chabrol brings us the story primarily from Paul's point of view, leaving many of the ambiguities, as well as the uncertainties of this tale to our own imagination.

From a script of Henri-Georges Clouzot (Diabolique, Wages of Fear) written in 1964, Chabrol updates the original (Clouzot never finished his version due to failing health, he died in 1977) giving it the contemporary setting and dialogue, but maintaining a style of presentation consistent with the thrillers of that era.

I love this early exchange: Nelly: "You're following me, Paul." Paul: "Why would I, is there any reason?" Nelly: "No, but if you keep it up, there will be."

Emmanuelle Beart shows why she is one of the world's great stars. American audiences have yet to have the best of Beart, who's English speaking debut (Mission:Impossible) seemed uneven, almost clumsy. But here she delivers on all cylinders: a beautiful seductress. Calculating? Unfaithful? We'll see.

Highly recommended.

A film about jealousy and mental illness

[charmaments · 7/10 · 8 January 2017]

I've seen this film many years ago and have watched it again tonight. It is a good film about two topics that don't get much attention. We often see jealousy on the screen, but it is often weak, humorous, self-harming or benign. We see mental illness on the screen, but it is rarely combined with something like jealousy. These two elements together form a deadly cocktail.

I say two, but here there are many small things that make this a recipe for disaster.

• The couple have, or are beginning to have, financial troubles. This adds a strain on even the healthiest marriage. - Nelly is a flirt who does things that make render even the least jealous partner jealous or suspicious. - Nelly is a liar. She lies about small things (cost of a bag, gambling), but it's enough to cause suspicion. - Paul is jealous and the thought of his wife with someone else burns him up. This is not a rare trait, but many jealous people don't have trust issues. They're jealous if they see something that bothers them, but suspicion and mistrust is its own disease. - Paul is suspicious of his wife and does not trust her at all. It does not help that Nelly flirts openly in front of him and lies to him. This fuels the problem. - Paul hallucinates and imagines things. He sees things that aren't there. - The lack of common friends or family means that the couple are in an island of their own misery. Paul has no one but customers to tell him that he's losing it. There are no parents or in- laws that could help him with his madness or, help him with the truth.

The film is intentionally ambiguous with some scenes, the boat scene with Martineau which was one of the biggest catalysts to his suspicions and the loss of her necklace, which she did indeed lose, but we are unsure if it was in the attic or not.

The fact is, audio/visual hallucinations, such as seeing something else on the projector screen or hearing voices from a sleeping woman are one thing, but actually picking up an item is something else.

Near the end we see a really interesting montage, Hitchcock-like, a fast cut of imaginations and hallucinations. I wish the film had more of that.

I'm disappointed that the film had no ending. It really had no ending, showing us a text saying "Without end" instead of giving us a conclusion. There is no way this couple could keep on going like this. The escalation from mere suspicion to battery and rape was quick, within weeks at most. This is an unsustainable relationship and an end, in one form or another, was near. It' just too bad that we didn't get one.

All in all, a good film about an interesting topic or intersection of topics.

7/10.

One of the most competent films to deal with the subject of sick and obsessive jealousy

[antoniocasaca123 · 7/10 · 7 March 2018]

Very good film, one of the last of Claude Chabrol, with excellent performances by Emmanuelle Beart and Francois Cluzet. Although not the best film of Chabrol, it is one of the most competent (and disconcerting) films to deal with the subject of sick and obsessive jealousy. Merit also for the end of the film and for the fact that we will never be shown if the woman is unfaithful or not.

Originally written by screenwriter and director Henri Georges Clouzot, "l'enfer", years later he had his rights sold by his widow to a producer who offered him to Claude Chabrol. His plot revolves around Paul Prieur, a man possessed by a sick jealousy of his wife.

No doubt this is a fascinating study that shows how one's insecurities can affect, in addition to his own life, those of all who find themselves around him.

Although considered as one of the great filmmakers of French cinema, this film is not considered among the best achievements of Chabrol, such as "le beau serge", "les cousins", "une affaire de femmes", "la ceremonie" , among others.

Interesting Case Study

[gavin6942 · 7/10 · 24 May 2017]

Paul, an irritable and stressed-out hotel manager, begins to gradually develop paranoid delusions about his wife's infidelity. As he succumbs to green-eyed jealousy, his life starts to crumble. Each step on his downward spiral to madness seems to accelerate, driving him further along the path to a personal heck.

The story was adapted by Chabrol from the screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot for the unfinished film "L'Enfer", which Clouzot began shooting in 1964 but was unable to complete. One has to wonder how it would have been different in the 1960s, but other than the film quality, it would probably be very similar... the plot is timeless.

Both leads do an excellent job of being desirable and obsessive, respectively. Certainly an interesting film, and even though the concept is simple, it comes across as very effective and may be Chabrol's finest work.

rather splendid late Chabrol

[christopher-underwood · 9/10 · 2 April 2006]

Surprisingly good, in fact rather splendid late Chabrol. We start with a young couple full of love and optimism as they bounce about running their hotel, bringing up baby and making eyes at each other. The wife seems to naturally do this semi flirting semi friendly stuff with everyone and gradually her husband begins to become jealous. We are never 100% certain but what at first seems six of one and half a dozen of the other descends into the 'hell' of the title as the green eyed monster truly comes to fruition. Initially delightful, this movie gets as dark as it possibly could and we are gripped, even perhaps more than with a Hitchcock as the terrible finale awaits.

Unpleasant, but undeniably the work of a master

[gridoon2024 · 7/10 · 25 January 2011]

Not a pleasant film to watch, and it does get a little repetitive by the end, but still a masterful psychological thriller that attempts, and largely succeeds at, the not so easy task of entering into a man's brain and showing us how it operates: how he confuses fantasy with reality, how in brief moments of mental clarity he can realize what's happening to him but he is unable to control it, etc. For Claude Chabrol, the essence of insane jealousy seems to be that you stop seeing your partner as a person and you start seeing them as your property. The movie visually progresses according to the story: open, sunny and idyllic at the start, dark, stormy and claustrophobic at the end. Both Cluzet and Beart give career-defining performances. See "L'Enfer" when you're in the mood for something more than simple "entertainment". *** out of 4.

absolutely exceptional

[planktonrules · 9/10 · 8 February 2006]

I just finished watching the stunning film L'Enfer and I couldn't wait to review it. The movie was written by one of my favorite French writers, Clouzot, so it was bound to be a good movie. Well, not exactly. In fact it was not just good but exceptional and is one of the better films I have seen in some time.

With my background as a psychotherapist, I have to say that it was a brilliant psychological study of madness. All too often, films don't get it right--here, it's perfect.

The story is about a jealous husband. At first, he shows signs of anxiety--trouble sleeping, irritability and distractability. Later, this slowly evolves to include paranoia, as he begins to suspect his lovely wife of infidelity. Well, at this point it MIGHT be that the husband is mildly mentally ill or perhaps he just has a very active imagination. However, very slowly the paranoia becomes more and more delusional and it's obvious this is no mild illness. In fact, it becomes increasingly obvious he is exhibiting strong symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. However, his wife refuses to believe--thinking instead that he is just a jerk and not potentially dangerous. However, he ultimately becomes violent and accusatory--and the violence continues to escalate.

So far, this is a magnificent portrait of mental illness, as this SLOWLY developed and evolved. Unfortunately, one inexplicable part of the movie keeps it from getting a score of 10. When he ultimately beats and rapes her, she goes to the doctor. When the husband is confronted by the doctor, the husband VERY QUICKLY and CONVINCINGLY decompensates. It is obvious to anyone with an IQ greater than 14 that he is VERY dangerous and MUST be hospitalized as soon as possible to protect himself and others. BUT, the doctor sends them home--to come back in the morning!!! While it is VERY clever of the doctor to convince the paranoid husband the it is the wife who will be hospitalized, I can't imagine any doctor not calling for an immediate ambulance or the police to apprehend and forcibly commit him.

Despite this flaw, what happens next and the absolute uncertainty of the ending is remarkable--you really aren't sure exactly what happened because it is all shown through the eyes of the husband and his own reality ultimately disintegrates and he is uncertain exactly what has occurred. This blending of paranoid schizophrenia with signs of disorganized schizophrenia was brilliant, as some people diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia later become MUCH more more fragmented and irrational. A WONDERFUL JOB BY THE WRITER, DIRECTOR and the MARVELOUS ACTOR PLAYING THE TROUBLED HUSBAND--WOW, what a great and convincing job! Too bad there was that little slip-up with the way the doctor behaved.

Obsessive jealousy

[DennisLittrell · 6/10 · 1 August 2001]

Although Emmanuelle Béart (Manon des sources (1986), Un coeur en hiver (1992), etc.) is particularly beautiful in this Claude Chabrol film and entirely compelling in the role of a free-spirited wife suspected of adultery, and even though her co-star Francois Cluzet (Une affaire de femmes (1988)) does a fine job as a man obsessed with jealousy, this turns out to be an almost boring movie.

I think the problem is in the ambiguity about Nelly's infidelity that director and scriptwriter Chabrol relied on. Ambiguity by itself does not create tension. Artistic tension comes from an interplay within the mind of the viewer between an anticipated or expected result and its actual delineation. Thus in comedy we know that they will live happily ever after, and in tragedy, the fatal flaw will lead to something horrible. We can even know the end of the story, as in Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet or in the Swedish film, Elvira Madigan (1967), or indeed in any number of war films, and still eagerly anticipate how it happens. In fact, I think it is always the case that we anticipate the end of a story at least in a general way: good will triumph over evil, the evil person will get his or her comeuppance, the British army will win the war, etc. In modern cinema this may not seem always true since the bad guys sometimes triumph, as in noire movies. Nonetheless I think the ending of such movies is really what we expect, the revelation of the essential unfairness of the world. It becomes then only a question of just how this unfairness manifests itself. As in classic drama, the modern comédie noire may be seen as a tragedy, with society or the meek or the slow or the trusting being devoured by the wild animals of the city.

Regardless, here I think it might have been better to clearly reveal Nelly's infidelity or lack of it, early on, and then focus on its discovery or the revelation of a delusion. Obsessive jealousy is a theme that should work, but may be harder to put on film than Chabrol realized. I think too that the character of the irrationally jealous man be made manifest in some collateral way; perhaps we should see his insecurity before hand somehow; perhaps he should have some obvious shortcoming of appearance or character or there should be something from his past that leads him to irrational jealousy. Clearly an older man with a young and beautiful wife may be jealous in anticipation of the inevitable; or any man with a flirtatious wife. This is not necessarily irrational.

Béart's Nelly reminds me of Brigitte Bardot from the days of her youth as in And God Created Woman (1957), a naturally warm and sensuous being, full of affection for others, very beautiful and impossibly sexy. The way Nelly walks and swings herself owes something to Bardot. The psychology of the Roger Vadim film from the fifties advanced the controversial) argument that a woman like that needs a firm hand. Here the suggestion is that the husband's jealousy can only lead to pain and disaster, and that the only hope is complete trust.

What I am trying to say is that the psychology, like the tension of the film, seemed at loose ends. It is clear before we are halfway through that Nelly really loves her husband, the real question being, is he enough for her? I also think that Nelly's character should have included something negative in it (she seems a little too good to be true), something the viewer could relate to, perhaps a past infidelity or betrayal.

Charbol is a better director than this film might indicate. See the aforementioned Une affaire de femmes (1988) starring Isabelle Huppert as an example of what he can do.

(Note: Over 500 of my movie reviews are now available in my book "Cut to the Chaise Lounge or I Can't Believe I Swallowed the Remote!" Get it at Amazon!)

Insecurity, Paranoia and Madness

[claudio_carvalho · 8/10 · 28 December 2011]

The owner of the Hotel Du Lac, Paul Prieur (François Cluzet), gets married with the beautiful and sexy Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) and they have a boy. Nelly loves Paul and is pleasant with guests, and the insecure Paul feels that she is a woman out of his league.

When Nelly spends some time with the handsome guest Martineau (Marc Lavoine), Paul follows her and becomes paranoid and delusional believing that she is unfaithful to him. His increasing obsession turns into madness that ends in an announced tragedy.

"L'Enfer" is a dramatic tale of insecurity, paranoia and madness by Claude Chabrol, with the story of a man that lives in hell with his jealousy and brings this hell to the life of his wife. Last time that I had seen this film was on 23 April 2000 and the story is timeless and has not aged. The tragic conclusion is predictable and my only remark is the attitude of Doctor Arnoux, who should have foreseen that the safety of Nelly was in danger with the insane Paul. Emmanuelle Béart is wonderfully cast to justify the obsession of Paul. My vote is eight.

Title (Brazil): "Ciúme - O Inferno do Amor Possessivo" ("Jealousy - The Hell of the Possessive Love")

Note: On 04 February 2018, I saw this film again.

Fighting a lost battle with the not excisting Clouzot version

[frankde-jong · 7/10 · 10 June 2019]

"L'enfer" of Chabrol had to compete with (the expectations related to) the (in)famous never finished project by Henri Georges Clouzot from 1964. Inevitably it falls short of this expectations. A documentary about the making of the 1964 film from 2010 casted doubt if the expectations where wholy justified, but in the end this is irrelevant. It is hard to compete to a film that was never finished or was lost.

Chabrol made a film that is clearly different from the one Clouzot was having in mind. No psychedelic effects in 1994, but instead of this a timeline that is a bit puzzeling at the beginning. The male character is moving rather rapidly from a bit suspicious about his wife fidelity to clearly insane. It takes a while befor you realise that the ratio of filmtime to real time is slowing down. In the beginning of the movie a quarter of filmtime represents years of real time. At the end of the film real time is moving even slower than filmtime.

At first sight it is especially the male (Paul played by Francois Cluzet) whose character is evolving (towards madness). At second glance it is above all the female (Nelly played by Emmanuelle Beart) who is interesting. Is she really having an affair or not? If not, why is she behaving sexual provocative if she knows about the jealousy of her man? And the final question: Why is she not leaving him when he becomes violent? As Roger Ebert put it in his critic: "Watching the movie, we focus on Paul. Remembering it, we think of Nelly".

Disappointing Production

[danschaefer2003 · 3/10 · 19 June 2004]

As one of the originators of the New Wave, Claude Chabrol deserves a large amount of respect. His films such as Bon Femmes and Le Ceremonie put him in the high ranks of the best film makers, but in this case, L'Enfer, he does not match up to his own high standards. This could also just be my opinion since I didn't enjoy watching the downward spiral the characters go through.

It was a ride I would rather not taken. Be that as it may, the film lacked a fullness of motivation for its lead, whose insanity seems to come from nowhere. Maybe again it is due to his mental illness, but as a viewer of the scene I needs to to know why. As France's Hitchcock, Chabrol needs to let us put the pieces together, as he let us do in his film The Unfaithful Wife, as we see the literal pieces of a puzzle reflecting the clues to the crime. If you love Emmanuel B'eart as we all do, you will find her and her fellow actors in good form, but the story falls flat.

Great film

[mpr3t · 9 March 2004]

I still think of L'Enfer as a great film, rife with psychological torment and anguish. It may not be Chabrol's best (as others have pointed out), but it is nonetheless very good. This is in my opinion also one of Beart's best performances. The cinematography is terrific, with wonderful contrasts between the idyllic, sun-drenched locale and the dark, tormented and claustrophobic emotional dimension. The plot is somewhat predictable, but the "meat" of the movie is on the psychological development of the main characters, not on "what happens next". Overall, I highly recommend this film to any fan of cinema.

Far from excellent

[LeRoyMarko · 6/10 · 9 April 2001]

I will have to disagree with other reviewers who wrote that «L'Enfer» is one of the best film by Claude Chabrol. For me, it was one of its dullest. Emmanuelle Béart and François Cluzet have made better movies too. Their acting is good but doesn't save the movie either. I gave it a 6, and I was generous.

Not Chabrol's best work

[=G= · 6/10 · 28 September 2003]

"L'Enfer" peers into the lives of a married-with-kid couple who run a resort hotel. She is beautiful and vivacious and he is jealous. As the film wears on, it appears we're supposed to believe the husband's jealousy slowly morphs into insanity though we're increasingly confronted with what seem to be his visions of his wife in compromising situations until the end when circumstance and a messy montage leave us confused and not knowing what to think. The result is a superficial story of a man being consumed with jealousy and some underlying theme which serves only to confound and make the denouement unsatisfying. An okay drama recommended for Chabrol fans only. (C+)

Note - The DVD is watched had poor quality remastering with less than true color; the speckles, zits, and lines of dusty and scratched film; and abrupt cuts which appeared to be poor editing.

The Jealous Husband

[Insane_Man · 7/10 · 10 April 2021]

A married couple with a baby boy, own a resort, guest house. The husband has a psychological pressure that his wife has affair with other persons. Thus he becomes jealous day by day. Things take an unexpected turn several times. But the wife always believe her husband is lovable. Whereas the husband believes his wife is unfaithful. Let's see, is his wife really unfaithful or does he become tolerable by the society.

suspense and Drama

[Bethy-3 · 10/10 · 30 October 1998]

Nelly(Emmanulle Beart) and Paul(François Cluzet) made a friendly couple till Paul starts listening to his interior voice, saying that his wife is unfaithful. The suspicion turns to be a certainty driving him mad. Is difficult to know the truth about Nelly, because her behaviour is all the time ambiguous.

The end is an unusual one, if you have seen the film, you will understand what I mean.

Once more Claude Chabrol is brilliant

Obsession

[BandSAboutMovies · 7/10 · 7 February 2022]

Claude Chabrol made this film from a screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who never finished his version of the film when he started making it back in 1964.

Paul (François Cluzet) and Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) have a relationship that falls apart due to his jealousy. L'Enfer means the "inferno of Hell" and that's what they both go through, all because Paul assumes that his wife is sleeping with anyone and everyone. But is she just doing these things to drive him mad? Or is she the living embodiment of a Tex Avery cartoon, the kind of woman that men can't control themselves around, and perhaps most frightening to men, one that knows it and uses it?

I'd say that at the least, I would not want to stay at the hotel that Paul is allowing to spiral madly out of control. That said, every man wants to marry a supermodel but is not ready for what work that entails. When everyone wants what you have - and you know it - and you're as despicable a person as Paul is, there's no way that your life can ever go well.

Captivating, Beautifully Disturbing Study of Jealousy and Marriage

[danielisud · 8/10 · 5 May 2023]

I found this film to be a quite captivating, beautiful, supremely acted, often anxiety producing examination of jealousy, mistrust, psychosis, abuse, manipulation and a lot of other emotions explored through the lens of a male whom we never truly know whether he is a reliable narrarator or a very sick individual. While jealousy is certainly an emotion most everyone will experience, the jealousy that is thoroughly explored here is of a more specific variety one where the male character feels everyone is a threat and everyone is in competition for his wife. At the same time he is constantly wrestling with the feeling of inadequacy and self doubt about where he stands in comparison to her people in her past and present. Inevitably this drives him to abuse, manipulation, assault, sever mental illness and ultimately a total unwinding of life itself for both parties. Chabrol did an excellent job, its beautifully shot, beautifully cast, and although dark and heavy at times it maintained my attention and i was entertained throughout. Absolutely suggest a watch!

Convincing

[skepticskeptical · 7/10 · 23 March 2021]

L'enfer offers an all-too-convincing portrayal of the disintegration of a marriage as a result of pathological possessiveness which transforms into full-fledged paranoia. Paul's sleeping pills are mentioned multiple times, making me wonder whether they are a factor in his deteriorating mental state.

The ambiguous ending is perhaps intended to make the viewer admit the possibility that the husband's concerns are grounded in reality. If so, I was not convinced. Instead, it just feels unfinished. How will the story end? You fill in the blanks...

"How would you feel to have you business got pounced on?"

[morrison-dylan-fan · 10/10 · 19 June 2016]

After watching the spectacular first Mission Impossible movie again recently,I decided to check Emmanuelle Béart's other credits.Discovering on Amazon UK and her IMDb page that 90% of Béart's credits were French flicks,I was taken aback,when I spotted a Neo- Noir (for £3) that looked liked the ultimate French 90's Noir,with the credits revealing that Béart was joining auteur film maker Claude Chabrol-and a screenplay from Henri-Georges Clouzot!,which led to me excitingly getting ready to jump into this Noir hell.

The plot:

Repairing an inn, Paul Prieur meets Nelly.Soon falling for each other, Prieur and Nelly soon get married and have a child. Initially living together in married bliss, Prieur starts to get anxious at every man who gives Nelly the smallest glance.Ignoring her explanations, Prieur begins secretly following Nelly on her daily routine.Catching his wife (possibly) being flirty, Prieur begins imagining the erotic acts that Nelly has performed with other men,which leads to the line between fantasy and reality in Prieur's mind crumbling away,as he and Nelly enter a pit of hell.

View on the film:

Lit up from the screenplay of Henri-Georges Clouzot's unfinished film, Chabrol (with additional dialogue from José-André Lacour) unleashes a Neo-Noir that is a perfect tribute to Clouzot,and also one whose themes allow the title to proudly stand on its own feet.Caught in a whirlwind romance, Chabrol gives the early days of Nelly and Prieur a bourgeoisie dream giving them a "perfect" image to the outside world.Twisting the knife into Neo-Noir,Clouzot and Chabrol display an extraordinary attention to detail for Prieur's lock into a Neo-Noir world,by making the slightest attempt Nelly makes to place a gap between them,lead to Prieur blurring the lines between his deeply troubling Neo-Noir "fantasies" in his mind,with the burning hell that he is shoving himself and Nelly in.

Presenting their marriage in fluid camera moves, Chabrol & cinematographer Bernard Zitzermann chip away at the light with brittle Neo-Noir darkness,via caving in the light colours with unrelenting shadows engulfing their lives. Dipping into Prieur's fractured mind, Chabrol grabs the neck of Prieur,via casting shimming shadows round Prieur's throat,that are lit up by Monique Fardoulis's razor sharp editing twisting and turning the murky nightmares and realities of Prieur and Nelly.

Becoming entwined with Prieur looking ravishingly beautiful, Emmanuelle Béart gives an immaculate performance as Nelly,whose care-free nature Béart makes shine,which is brilliantly turned into a shell shocked soul who cant find an escape from the Neo-Noir pit.Entering the title looking like a gentlemen, François Cluzet gives a magnificent performance as Prieur.Starting with a nervous grin, Cluzet subtly pulls the veins out of Prieur's anxiety and suspicions across the screen and circles them round the decayed relationship,as Prieur and Nelly enter Chabrol's and Clouzot's inferno.

7.4/10. Recommended

[athanasiosze · 7/10 · 13 January 2024]

This is the second Chabrol's movie i watched, first one was LA CEREMONIE (1995) and, whereas it is considered as one of his best movies, i didn't like it that much (6/10).

"L'enfer" is so much better. I can't give a lot of details and if you haven't watched it, watch it without reading anything about this. I don't wana give a spoiler. I will say this though : This is an, overall, accurate depiction of some troubled relationships. At first, it seems like a romance movie but this is a psychological drama. At times it seems like a dramedy or even a thriller or a dark comedy. Tone is changing though and in the end, it will blow you away. Second part is more intense than most of thriller/horror movies i have seen. It's almost anxiety-inducing. Acting is excellent, both Cluzet and Beart are amazing.

There are some flaws, so i can't rate it higher. There is a scene with the couple and a doctor near the ending that it doesn't make much sense. The ending itself is strong but, come on, it didn't need to be that ambiguous. And to be honest, Cluzet's character "transformation" is not much smooth. I mean, i said it's realistic overall, but some events were kinda far fetched.

In any case, this is a very good drama.

Boring, I got lost.

[mvaillan · 1/10 · 27 April 2000]

Lots of sequence of imagination. The more the movie goes on, the more I got lost between what was real and what was not.

Maybe that's the purpose, that the spectator becomes lost. But too much is too much.