Film
What's on at the cinema plus reviews of the latest movie and DVD releases
L'Enfer (1993)
Director: Claude Chabrol
Movie review
From Time Out Film Guide
Paul (Cluzet) is charming, attractive, hard-working; Nelly (Béart) is beautiful and carefree, devoted to her husband and more than happy to help him make a success of his Edenic lakeside hotel. They're madly in love. Nelly has a baby. Paul has trouble sleeping; he can't shake off a nagging inner voice which needs to know what Nelly's up to every minute of the day. Little by little his suspicions take shape, and jealousy plunges him into an unfathomable purgatory of doubt and dementia. Chabrol's film is a relentlessly bleak, gripping study of pathological jealousy which finds the director more thoroughly engaged than he's been for some while. Based on a rediscovered screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot (whose 1964 production was abandoned after six days' shooting), this is a black comedy which evolves into a long dark night of the soul. The nihilistic vision may be Clouzot's, but the economy, concentration and oppressive atmosphere are pure Chabrol, as is the eruption of the suppressed into the public arena. A work of enthralling virtuosity.Author: TCh
Cast & crew
Director: Claude Chabrol
Producer: Marin Karmitz
Cast: Emmanuelle Béart, François Cluzet, Nathalie Cardone, André Wilms, Marc Lavoine, Dora Doll, Jean-Pierre Cassel full cast
Genre(s): Thrillers
Duration: 103 mins
Most popular on this site
Top Stories
Cannes 2008 diary: ‘Lion’s Den’ and 'Three Monkeys'
Geoff Andrew likes Pablo Trapero's 'Lion's Den', but loves 'Nuri Bilge Ceylan's 'Three Monkeys', both of which screened at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
Ten great hat movies
Read Time Out's top ten hat movies to celebrate the release of 'Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull'
Cannes 2008 diary: 'Hunger'
Dave Calhoun sees much promise in artist Steve McQueen debut film, 'Hunger', which received its premiere at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival
Cannes 2008 diary: 'Blindness'
Dave Calhoun sees the good and the bad in Fernando Meirelles' 'Blindness', the opening film at the 2008 Cannes Film Festival






What do you think?
Post your review now