I think about the directors of the period 1930-1960 that I admire--Renoir, Clair, Carne, Gremillon, Duvivier and others--and I realize that I have little admiration or affection for Clouzot. His obsessive, paranoid style of filmmaking has little attraction for me. There's no joy in being the French Hitchcock, in bullying your actors and putting nightmarish scenes up on the screen. Take Les diaboliques, with the awful scene of Paul Meurisse lying in the bathtub, then rising slowly to frighten Vera Clouzot to death: only a sadistic personality could shoot a scene like that. It's Clouzot's Psycho, and just as worthless as art. A collaborator is interviewed: she says his flaw was in not having any imagination. He'd ask his actress Suzy Delair to make up some dialogue because he couldn't think of anything to write down.
The end of this 60 minute documentary came not too soon. I've got some films by Jacques Becker I want to rewatch... now there was a real filmmaker.
The end of this 60 minute documentary came not too soon. I've got some films by Jacques Becker I want to rewatch... now there was a real filmmaker.