Bereits Anfang Dezember 2010 hatte ich geschrieben, dass Henri-Georges Clouzots Thriller-Klassiker “Die Teuflischen / Les diaboliques” [F 1955] bei Arrow Films auf Blu-ray erscheinen soll. Die Disc wird nicht mehr – wie ursprünglich geplant – am 28. März 2011 in den Handel gelangen, sondern am 18. April 2011. Bei Arrow Films wurden bereits weitere Details bekannt gegeben.

After the success of The Wages of Fear (Le salaire de la peur) Henri-Georges Clouzot cemented his reputation with his masterpiece, Les diaboliques.

Based on a novel by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac (who also wrote the novel on which Hitchcock’s Vertigo is based), Les diaboliques tells the story of a sadistic headmaster (Paul Meurisse) who brutalises his wife and mistress (Véra Clouzot and Simone Signoret) and their plot to murder him. Superbly edited with nail-biting suspense, the two women murder the headmaster and dump the body in the swimming pool, but when the pool is drained no corpse is found. An unsettling and beautifully-paced study of betrayal, mistrust and guilt, Les diaboliques is atmospherically shot in black and white, its murky tones hauntingly echo the moral ambiguity of its principals.

An acknowledged influence on Alfred Hitchcock and Stanley Kubrick among others, Les diaboliques is presented on Blu-ray for the first time in the UK.

SPECIAL FEATURES:

• Brand new High Definition transfer of the film from a new restoration of the original negative
• Audio commentary by Susan Hayward, author of Les diaboliques (Cine-file French Film Guides)
• Filmed interview with Ginette Vincendeau, French cinema scholar, critic and author
• Original Trailer
• Brand new writing on the film by author and critic Brad Stevens and a re-printed interview with Clouzot by Paul Schrader illustrated with stills and rare original set drawings by Léon Barsacq.
• Artwork presentation packaging including original posters and a newly commissioned artwork cover