AnneCarlini.com Home
 
  Giveaways!
  Insider Gossip
  Monthly Hot Picks
  Book Reviews
  CD Reviews
  Concert Reviews
  DVD Reviews
  Game Reviews
  Movie Reviews
  Check Out The NEW Anne Carlini Productions!
  [NEW] Belouis Some (2024)
  [NEW] Jay Aston’s Gene Loves Jezebel (2024)
  [NEW] Mark Ruffalo (‘Poor Things’)
  [NEW] Paul Giamatti (‘The Holdovers’)
  [NEW] Crystal Gayle
  [NEW] Ellen Foley
  Gotham Knights [David Russo - Composer]
  The Home of WAXEN WARES Candles!
  Michigan Siding Company for ALL Your Outdoor Needs
  MTU Hypnosis for ALL your Day-To-Day Needs!
  COMMENTS FROM EXCLUSIVE MAGAZINE READERS!


©2024 annecarlini.com
Ghost Canyon

'Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno: Special Ed.'
(Romy Schneider, Serge Reggiani, Costa-Gavras, et al / Blu ray / NR / (1964) 2018 / Arrow Films UK)

Overview: The film depicts the extreme jealousy of a hotelier, Marcel (Serge Reggiani, then 42 years old), towards his wife, Odette (Romy Schneider, then 26 years old).

Blu ray Verdict: Set in a beautiful lake side resort in the Auvergne region of France, L'Enfer ('Inferno') was to be a sun scorched elucidation on the dark depths of jealousy starring Romy Schneider as the harassed wife of a controlling hotel manager (Serge Reggiani).

However, despite huge expectations, major studio backing and an unlimited budget, after three weeks the production collapsed under the weight of arguments, technical complications and illness.

The story goes that in 1964, Henri-Georges Clouzot, the acclaimed director of thriller masterpieces Les Diaboliques and Wages of Fear, began work on his most ambitious film yet. That film would, obviously turn out to be 'Inferno.'

Clouzot was never any stranger to disruption within the industry, as was clearly evident when at Continental Studios, he wrote and directed films that were very popular in France, but his second film, Le Corbeau, drew controversy over its harsh look at provincial France. After the ban was lifted, Clouzot reestablished his reputation and popularity in France during the late 1940s with successful films including Quai des Orfèvres. After the release of his comedy film Miquette et sa mère, Clouzot married Véra Gibson-Amado, who would star in his next three feature films.

Directed, written and produced by Clouzot, cinematography by Andréas Winding and Armand Thirard, 'Inferno' remained unfinished in 1964, but was subsequently presented in 2009 as a full-length semi-documentary by Serge Bromberg.

Shot partly in black-and-white, partly in colour, Clouzot selected the title as an allusion to Dante's Inferno, and the names Odette and Marcel refer to characters in Marcel Proust's novel À la recherche du temps perdu.

Despite an unlimited budget from Columbia Pictures—Clouzot worked with three crews and 150 technicians—the shooting was beset by severe problems: everyone suffered from the record heat during July in the Cantal region; the main actor Serge Reggiani claimed to be ill (Jean-Louis Trintignant was asked to replace him); the artificial lake below the Garabit viaduct, an important part of the location, was about to be emptied by the local authorities; then Clouzot suffered a heart attack and was hospitalized in Saint-Flour.

So, as aforementioned, after just three weeks, the film was abandoned. But, and importantly, before that and in prep, Clouzot cast 26-year-old Romy Schneider; who, though Austrian, was then one of France's leading film stars. French cinema was a-tremble with expectation: could L'Enfer repeat the success of his earlier, great films?

Moreover, Clouzot was known as a forbiddingly meticulous metteur en scène, storyboarding his films so intensively that actors often felt thwarted. On L'Enfer, he sought to revolutionise cinema by meticulously creating a film using the experimental sounds of Pierre Boulez's Ircam in Paris, and the then-voguish images of kinetic art to express his hero's increasingly wild fantasy life. These lurid colour sequences would be juxtaposed with black-and-white footage shot on location.

And then one day, while he was filming Romy Schneider and Dany Carel having a lesbian tryst on a boat on the lake, he had a heart attack. He was taken to hospital and was compelled to abandon the film. "It happened at the right moment," Stora has since reportedly been heard to comment. "Things weren't going well."

The film features several innovative and practical lighting techniques by Andréas Winding and Armand Thirard. Most notably in the psychedelic climax of the film, rotating lighting rigs were placed in-front of the camera and actors. The final effect created the illusion of the actors faces transitioning between emotions, and personalities. They would also slowly change their emotions intensifying the effect when synced to each rotation. This is a Widescreen (1.78:1) Presentation enhanced for 16x9 TVs and comes with the Special Features of:

High Definition Blu-ray (1080p) presentation
Original 5.1 DTS-HD Master Audio
Optional English subtitles
Lucy Mazdon on Henri-Georges Clouzot, the French cinema expert and academic talks at length about the films of Clouzot and the troubled production of Inferno
They Saw Inferno, a featurette including unseen material, providing further insight into the production of Inferno
Filmed Introduction by Serge Bromberg
Interview with Serge Bromberg
Stills gallery
Original trailer
Reversible sleeve featuring original and newly commissioned artwork by Twins of Evil
FIRST PRESSING ONLY: Illustrated collector's booklet featuring new writing on the film by Ginette Vincendeau

www.mvdb2b.com





...Archives