Diabolical

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Movie
German title Diabolical
Original title Diabolique
Country of production United States
original language English
Publishing year 1996
length 104 minutes
Age rating FSK 16
Rod
Director Jeremiah S. Chechik
script Don Roos
production James G. Robinson
Marvin Worth
music Randy Edelman
camera Peter James
cut Carol Littleton
occupation

Diabolisch (original title: Diabolique ) is an American thriller from 1996. Directed by Jeremiah S. Chechik , the screenplay was written by Don Roos based on the novel Dead should be silent (original title: Celle qui n'était plus ) by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac . The main roles were played by Sharon Stone , Isabelle Adjani and Chazz Palminteri .

The film is a new version of the French film The Devilish by Henri-Georges Clouzot from 1955.

action

Mia Baran, who had a heart condition, was a religious sister before she founded a boarding school in Pennsylvania and married the teacher, Guy, who was employed there. Guy has an affair with the boarding school teacher Nicole Horner.

Nicole and Mia become friends anyway and decide to kill the unfaithful man. Mia numbs him and together with Nicole she throws him into a nearby pool. She is startled when a little later the pool is emptied, but no corpse can be seen in it.

At the end of the plot, Mia sees her husband alive in the bathtub and faints, apparently encouraged by her weak heart. Now it turns out that Guy and Nicole were plotting to get Mia out of the way. Nicole gets a remorse in view of the helpless Mia and turns against Guy. There is a life and death fight and ultimately both women drown Guy together in a swimming pool. The last scene shows how the investigator appointed to deal with Guy's disappearance helps to make the death appear clearly like self-defense.

Reviews

The film magazine Positif cannot recommend this film because the original by Clouzot has “ too strong a presence ”, which puts the new version in the shade.

Roger Ebert wrote in the Chicago Sun-Times on March 22, 1996 that the film differed greatly from the original from 1955. He missed the elegance of the older film as well as the ending - in the French film a police inspector saw through the plot. He also complained that the film was too focused on the stars, while in the film from 1955 some supporting roles were more developed.

Also Rob Vaux in Flipside Movie Emporium and Mike Pinsky in DVD Verdict the remake considered to have failed.

Awards

Peter James was awarded a prize by the Australian Cinematographers Society for his cinematography . Sharon Stone was nominated for the Golden Raspberry .

literature

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Positif No. 425-426, July / August 1996, p. 141

Web links