On Monday night I saw a superb documentary which is still reverberating in my head.
It concerns a lost film by the great French director Henri-Georges Clouzot, he of The Wages Of Fear (1953) and Les Diaboliques (1955).
In 1964 he intended to make his masterpiece with the psychological drama with L’Enfer (Inferno).
We will never know whether it was Clouzot’s masterpiece, because his version of the film was never finished. They only got through 2 and a half weeks of an 18 week shoot, when the lead actor left the set and Clouzot had a heart attack.
Now, 45 years later, director Serge Bromberg has made an amazing documentary about the aborted film that not only includes much of the footage that was shot, but also some truly hypnotic camera tests.
Anyone with even a passing interest in the trials and tribulations of film making would do well to check this out. This is as fascinating as Hearts Of Darkness or Burden Of Dreams as a document of a hugely ambitious undertaking. And as heartbreaking as Lost In La Mancha as a tale of the film that didn’t make it.
Like I said, I am still thinking about the film days later. There’s something quite haunting about seeing the silent rushes of a troubled shoot with a clapperboard that literally reads ‘hell’ in French (“L’ENFER”).
And the glimpses of the footage and montages cut together from some 15 hours of camera tests are so mesmerizing.
How mesmerizing?
Play the clip below and see Romy Schneider getting slinky with a slinky. Lucky slinky I say.
The film is out now in limited release. I saw it at the ICA and would recommend seeing it on the biggest screen you can find.
More info at TheAuteurs.com
