Review of Enfer, L`

Introduction

If you were married to the stunningly beautiful Emmanuelle Béart, would you be so paranoid as to think that every man is not only after her, but that she must be after them too? After all, you`re a mere hotelier trying to make your business succeed but you`re having problems thinking rationally beyond jealousy and fear.

It`s a nightmare scenario where you play scenes repeatedly in your mind and that inner voice convinces you of your wife`s infidelity. Paul`s (François Cluzet) wife Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) is friendly and open and tells the odd lie, but her ever persistent husband has latched onto the notion that she`s carrying on with someone and it`s driving him mad. L`Enfer (translated as `Hell`) sees the result of Paul`s envy and delusion with dire consequences.

Video

A very good 1.85:1 16:9 enhanced transfer with barely a blemish in sight. Colour and detail are well balanced throughout and director Chabrol uses the camera in interesting ways. There`s little in the way of smearing or other digital problems.

Audio

Lots of dialogue, French dialogue come to that, and it plays out loud and clear. The Dolby Digital 2.0 French sound does a good enough job of conveying the story and music without the need for anything more.

Features

Easy to navigate static menus with a few extras:

• Selected Scene Commentary (37:54) - Director Chabrol talks us through key scenes with his thoughts on the film and his reasons for shooting it the way he does. It`s an interesting, if short, look at his process and increases one`s understanding of the film.

• Claude Chabrol Interview (11:17) - A short interview of the man and how he came to make this film and why.

• Presentation (3:09) - This presentation is a short study of the film and its background. It`s nonetheless interesting and succinct.

All in all these extras, while a bit on the short side, are very interesting and do enhance the film. The English subtitles work well and are easy to follow.

Conclusion

The film starts very simply with the introduction of Paul (François Cluzet) and Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) then it goes onto their marriage, the birth of their son and we progress rapidly through about seven years worth of marriage in about 20-minutes. Normally you`d think that such a pace wouldn`t work well as we don`t get enough of the characterisations (Jennifer Lopez`s Enough was evidence of this), but it does work here and there`s still 80-minutes of the film left to run. This is ample time to portray Paul`s increasing instability, and like his moods, the downward spiral swings between lucidity and delusion.

Director Claude Chabrol has created a beautiful and stimulating film in L`Enfer. Written by Henri-George Clouzot (Les Diabolique, 1955), Chabrol decided to take the first draft of the script after Clouzot`s death (Clouzot rejected his first draft and later filmed his own revised version of the script in 1964). It has shades of Hitchcock`s Suspicion with role reversal, but ends without an ending. The paranoia of infidelity is on going and seeing it take its toll on Paul is interesting. There`s reason to be suspicious however as his wife`s behaviour, while being somewhat ambiguous, leads to a few lies on her part and this just fuels the fire even more. The trust between husband and wife is slowly eroding and he takes to playing detective and follows her, but his unstable state of mind makes him believe what he wants to believe, not what reality shows.

Chabrol is, without doubt, stylish yet subtle in his direction. It`s easy to sympathise with Paul at the start of the film with his suspicions, but watching how envy takes a hold of him and drives him to extremes will soon have you switching sides. Paul`s descent into `hell` is mesmerising to say the least with his gorgeous wife driving him to the end of despair. Emmanuelle Béart and François Cluzet play their parts really well and I was hooked from start to finish. At just 98-minutes the film is lean and riveting and I would thoroughly recommend checking this film out.