Henri-Georges Clouzot

  • Quai des Orfèvres (1947)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (On Cable TV, January 2022) Solid crime thrillers can feel timeless, and Quai des Orfèvres is a very competent take on familiar plot elements. Written and directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot (who reportedly adapted a novel from memory, which is wild enough), it quickly throws in a lovely singer (Suzy Delair, very cute), a bickering jealous husband, a creepy admirer, a lesbian photographer with a crush on the heroine and who herself becomes a crush of the police inspector asked to investigate the murder that soon follows. The police procedural aspect of the film is reinforced by some very solid dialogue (better in the original French than in the functional English subtitles) and cleverly sketched characters. Quai des Orfèvres is a decent genre exercise that gives us a good glimpse at the uneasiness of post-war France, executed in a straightforward but polished style. Not a bad pick for students of French cinema, perhaps as another piece of evidence to inform the idea that poetic realism influenced much of film noir and then the French New Wave.

  • Le corbeau [The Raven] (1943)

    Le corbeau [The Raven] (1943)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Criterion Streaming, April 2020) There’s an admirable simplicity at the heart of Le corbeau—in this proto-noir thriller, inhabitants of a small French village start receiving letters that spill the town’s secrets—adultery, abortion, terminal diagnoses, and so on. This leads to an atmosphere of paranoia, distrust and revenge—who is that “raven” who signs the letters? It’s not a bad thriller at all—the paranoia is substantial, the hero has some depth, there are plenty of twists and turns, and the ending hits fast. There’s also a fascinating real-world story to be told about Le Corbeau. Produced by a Franco-German company in a France that was then under Nazi occupation, it wasn’t warmly received by the French, and as soon as the war was over, writer-director Henri-Georges Clouzot was “banned for life” from making movies in France, as the public was convinced the film was an attack on the French. A critical re-evaluation soon followed—Clouzot was eventually unbanned (he ended up delivering two of the best French thrillers of the 1950s) and the film was once again re-evaluated as a subtle attack on the Nazis. While that historical context is interesting, it doesn’t take away from the power of Le corbeau: As a mystery, a thriller and an unforgiving look as small-town power dynamics, it remains a reference.

  • Le salaire de la peur [The Wages of Fear] (1953)

    Le salaire de la peur [The Wages of Fear] (1953)

    ByChristian Sauvé Movie Review

    (Criterion streaming, August 2019) Despite Le salaire de la peur being on several lists of essential movies, I approached the film with caution—as any modern viewer would in tackling a 1950s black-and-white thriller lasting slightly over two hours and a half. The first hour seemingly gives credence to the caution, as it leisurely introduces a small South American town filled with desperate people. Slowly, we piece together the plot: The town is dominated by an oil company that, for reasons, needs four suicidal men to quickly drive gallons of nitroglycerin over a long dangerous distance. There are a few fake-outs and multilingual subplots on our way to the real movie, but we eventually get there. By the time our four main characters have been identified and take the wheel of two explosive-laden trucks, Le salaire de la peur really begins, and it becomes a true white-knuckle thrill-ride until the end. The road to the destination is a carnival of outlandish obstacles designed to test the ingenuity of the screenwriter: a bumpy dirt road that can either be taken fast or slow (leading to a deliciously original suspense sequence based on physics); a dangerous hairpin turn; obstacles to be cleared explosively; and an oil-filled crater filled with surprises. The latter half of Le salaire de la peur is pure mechanically-driven analog suspense—even modern viewers will smell the engines, taste the dirt and feel the physical elements that drive its action scenes. It’s as good as suspense gets, and it still works magnificently sixty years later. Yves Montand makes for a capable hero, and director Henri-Georges Clouzot manages his production with devilish precision once we’re past the prologue. I can take that dull first half once you throw in that remarkably effective second half. Alas, there’s a false note at the very end, once we think that the sacrifices had led to something. But then again, that may have been the only way to conclude such a story. Modern viewers should flock to Le salaire de la peur, make their way through the dull setup and relish the impact of the rest of the film. It’s that good.