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Henri-Georges Clouzot (1907-1977)



Filmography

La Terreur des Batignolles (Short;1931)

Caprice de princesse (Co-Direction Karl Hartl; 1933)

Tout pour l'amour (Co-Direction Joe May; 1933)

L'Assassin habite... au 21 / The Murderer Lives at Number 21 (1942) TF1 Vidéo

Le Corbeau / The Raven (1943) Criterion (R1) / Studio Canal (R2 FR) – included in 2004 Criterion Gift Set

Quai des Orfèvres / Quay of the Goldsmiths (1947) Criterion (R1) – included in 2004 Criterion Gift Set

Manon (1949)

Retour à la vie (segment: Le Retour de Jean / Return to Jean) (1949)

Le Voyage en Brésil (Unfinished; 1950)

Miquette et sa mère (1950)

Le Salaire de la peur / The Wages of Fear (1953) Criterion (R1) / Umbrella – included in the Essential Art House - 50 Years of Janus Films & the 2004 Criterion Gift Set

Les Diaboliques / Diabolique (1955) Criterion (R1) / Umbrella – included in the 2004 Criterion Gift Set

Le Mystère Picasso / The Mystery of Picasso (1956) Image (R1) / Sherlock Home Video

Les Espions / The Spies (1957) (R2)

La Vérité / The Truth (1960)

L'Enfer (Unfinished; 1964)

Messa da Requiem von Giuseppe Verdi / Giuseppe Verdi: Requiem (1967) (R1)

La Prisonnière / The Woman in Chains (1968) Studio Canal (R2 FR)


Forum Discussions

There are discussions of Clouzot’s films in many threads in the forum. Below is a short list of links to those threads that are most specifically concerned with the films of Clouzot.

35 Diabolique

36 The Wages of Fear

193 Quai des Orfèvres

227 Le Corbeau


Web Resources

Given Clouzot’s stature in film history, numerous people have expressed themselves about his work on the internet. Below are a select few sites that offer useful information on the director. Several of the sites have extensive collections of links to further resources.

Films of France – A short bio

Film Reference – Comprehensive overview of Clouzot’s works

Senses of Cinema – informative essay by Fiona Watson

Wikipedia


Books on Clouzot

Henri-Georges Clouzot by Christopher Lloyd (Manchester University Press 2007)

Henri-Georges Clouzot by Philipe Pilard (Editions Seghers 1969)

Masterworks of the French Cinema (Harper & Row 1974)

A Passion for Films: Henri Langlois & the Cinematheque Francaise by Henri Langlois; Forward by François Truffaut (The Johns Hopkins University Press 1999)

Manon is a masterpiece, and it's avalaible on a restored print on DVD here in Spain by Notro films.

L'assassin habite... is also released by Sherlock Home media.

Any chance of Criterion releasing La Vérité? It sounds fantastic and it was nominated for an Oscar for best foreign film. Anyone seen it?

Also, what is the status on Le Corbeau?

LA VÉRITÉ has much going for it, including Bardot´s performance, the script and some excellent studio work mixing old-style lighting and New Wave-style locations like Café Sputnik. A nice addition to the courtroom drama genre. If Criterion releases it, the might do well by including the restoration of extant scenes from the unfinished L´ENFER, showing in Cannes 2009 according to a Spanish newspaper article (link to be found in the Edward Yang thread).

Stefan Andersson wrote:LA VÉRITÉ has much going for it, including Bardot´s performance, the script and some excellent studio work mixing old-style lighting and New Wave-style locations like Café Sputnik. A nice addition to the courtroom drama genre. If Criterion releases it, the might do well by including the restoration of extant scenes from the unfinished L´ENFER, showing in Cannes 2009 according to a Spanish newspaper article (link to be found in the Edward Yang thread).

that would be one of the greatest Criterion bonus ever!!!!! should we email Jon Mulvaney ???

some excerpts of this documentary (magnificent fantasmagoric rushes of Romy Schneider from unreleased l'Enfer) can be seen here:

it's "just" 5 minutes of rushes- but it's stunning. The use of color makes me thinks of how Hitchcock used to film hallucinations... (use the skip key to get directly to the L'Enfer rushes)

Coming soon to the Cinemoi Channel in the UK:

BROMBERG ON L’ENFER
In 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot chose 26 years-old Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani to be the leads of L’ENFER. An enigmatic and original project; an unlimited budget; a film, which was meant to be the cinematographic event at its release. However, after 3 weeks into filming, drama happens. The project is interrupted and the images, which were told to be “incredible”, will never be shown. Serge Bromberg has recovered those images that were forgotten for half a century and they are more mind-blowing than the legend predicted. In this unique interview for Cinémoi, he tells us about the history and the making of L’ENFER, and how he has used the material to piece together an enthralling documentary, interspersed with staged reconstructions, to take us on a journey into the darkest depths of the creative process.

Good lord this sounds fascinating. Here's hoping someone rips a copy of the broadcast.

Here's a link to a video showing an extract of Clouzot's L'Enfer courtesy of Tout Le Ciné. The cinematography is every bit as impressive as described in Tojoed's post - in particular the travelling light source throughout the black and white shots (and keep an eye on Romy Schneider's eyes in those scenes, just hypnotising).

For the record, i'll never look at my slinky in the same way again

Thanks for the link. Pretty amazing footage, though the slinky shot is one of the most gloriously silly things I've seen in a long while.

Bromberg on L'Enfer will be shown on June 17th at 8.30pm.

It will also be shown free to non-subscribers on Sunday 21st June.

For those in the UK, like me who missed this it will be coming to cinemas at some point and then on DVD I expect as Park Circus have aquired all media rights.

For those in the DC area, AFI Silver has announced that Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno will be one of the Centerpiece screenings in their European Union Film Showcase next month, the screenings are on the 21st and 22nd.

would anyone know where to get a dvd of La Vérité with english subtitels? So far I only found this french version,
http://www.amazon.fr/verit%C3%A9-Brigit ... B000OPOEOO" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;
but it seams like it doesnt include any english subtitels.

it would be cool, if Criterion would release this film. just seen it this weekend for the frist time and its just great.

bigP wrote:Here's a link to a video showing an extract of Clouzot's L'Enfer courtesy of Tout Le Ciné. The cinematography is every bit as impressive as described in Tojoed's post - in particular the travelling light source throughout the black and white shots (and keep an eye on Romy Schneider's eyes in those scenes, just hypnotising).

For the record, i'll never look at my slinky in the same way again

it's like the seinfeld episode where the girl one of them is dating looks completely different depending on the lighting


utterly mesmerizing....but what was the actual film supposed to be about? and when do we get to see this in the U.S.?

HistoryProf wrote: utterly mesmerizing....but what was the actual film supposed to be about? and when do we get to see this in the U.S.?

In case you weren't aware of it, Chabrol made L'Enfer based on Clouzot's script with Béart in the Romy role. As might be expected from Uncle Claude there are unfortunately no slinkies involved.

The business with the Slinky just feels...wrong. As if we've had a peek at someone's porn stash.

Any word as to when this might be on DVD? I saw one review that suggested this was a set of DVD extras with little actual content or analysis.

reaky wrote:The business with the Slinky just feels...wrong. As if we've had a peek at someone's porn stash.

Any word as to when this might be on DVD? I saw one review that suggested this was a set of DVD extras with little actual content or analysis.

Park Circus are releasing the DVD on April 12th. Seems as though there will be extras on the DVD including making of.

Thanks for that. Looking forward to it - great fan of the documentary-on-the-making-of-the-documentary. Up there with the commentary-on-the-making-of-documentary (a la The Shining DVD).

Well, shiver me slinkies, first Euro blu H-G C out of the traps are two of his films of Karajan and the Berliner Symphony Orch.

http://www.prestoclassical.co.uk/r/C%2BMajor/704104" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

No news yet what's happened to the proposed L'Assassin blu.

Shock!

Clouzot-scripted Le Dernier des six is out on DVD now. Kind of a prequel to L'Assassin as it features Fresnay&Delair.

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:Well, shiver me slinkies, first Euro blu H-G C out of the traps are two of his films of Karajan and the Berliner Symphony Orch..

It's the Berlin Philharmonic (Berliner Philharmoniker), not the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Berliner Symphoniker).

gyorgys wrote:

NABOB OF NOWHERE wrote:Well, shiver me slinkies, first Euro blu H-G C out of the traps are two of his films of Karajan and the Berliner Symphony Orch..

It's the Berlin Philharmonic (Berliner Philharmoniker), not the Berlin Symphony Orchestra (Berliner Symphoniker).

Well if you really want to disappear up yourself it's actually the Wiener Symphoniker as well so just treat it as an elision between the two.

Caps from the new Manon M6/SNC DVD. NO subs whatsoever, but a quick search with Google will get you some custom work that may help you trough the film.

Knappen, these are excellent captures from what is obviously a very clear print of Manon - thank you.

I had been aware of only three releases of Clouzot's Manon currently in print on DVD: Amazon.com has a dreadful home-burned unwatchable version that has at least 10 scenes cut; Amazon.co.uk has (or had) a Korean R0 NTSC release, full length, in pretty good condition, but with English subtitles rendered by either a very poor computer translating program or a Korean speaker with very little grasp of English, and are mostly incomprehensible; and Amazon.fr has a Warner Home Video release that I haven't seen, presumably in very good condition, R2 PAL, with no subtitles at all.

Are your screen captures not from this same Warner release? Or where did you obtain your copy, and who is the issuer?

EDIT: I forgot to mention that Amazon.co.jp also has the same copy as the Korean release, but in R2 PAL, and I think without English subtitles. They also list two other versions that I didn't investigate. It's worth noting that co.jp ships overseas by private carrier (DHL, etc) instead of through the mail, and shipping charges can be very expensive.

EDIT: Tried to answer a question from another member that got deleted.