Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno

File this one next to "Lost in La Mancha" and "Jordorowski's Dune" as this is another fascinating look at a visionary film maker attempting and ultimately failing to bring an ambitious film into existence. Accessing 11 hours of wild op art influenced test footage, 15 days worth of actual production filming and interviews and behind the scenes documentation this excellent Arrow release tells you what happened and how it all went sideways back in 1965. Would the film have lived up to the potential? Who knows but, the story is amazing.

I enjoyed it. This documentary was really interesting, and I came away from it with an appreciation for Clouzot (whom I'd never heard of) but also feel a little wary of his obsessive perfectionism that seems to have sabotaged the original movie. I think Inferno would have been a classic, especially with it's colorful visuals, and I'm glad this documentary showed us that. I've certainly noticed that these visuals have been repeated in the music videos of the last few decades.

A marvellous story about an anhappy director, a couple of stars, a strange lake - and a picture that was never made.

excellent and fast service

Presumably because it would detract from the inherent drama of "The Film That Never Was" angle. Understandable, but a little dishonest. A lie by omission, kinda.The late, great Claude Chabrol directed Clouzot's script in 1992 - and it's one of his best. Indeed, it was somewhat of a hit - yup, the public would actually see foreign fins not so long ago.You can find 1992s L'enfer/The Inferno here: Asin# 1572522739. A great portrait of psychosexual obsession and insanity.Oh, it also stars Emanuelle Beart at the height of her powers - what man wouldn't go (literally!) insane? Just in case you're on the fence...

Strange how I've the feeling to have watched the completed version of Clouzot's L'Enfer now, as though the film doesn't exist at all. This documentary is another proof that an artist, without being bridled, causes his own destruction. Masterpiece.

Looks like the only reason this movie existed was to make money from american funding, add a famous french director who was good at wasting time making money for an oversized crew that otherwise would have been unemployed. The scenes serve no purpose. Someone wasted time putting this together.

The list of movies that have been lost over the years is larger than one would expect. Many were lost in fires on the backlots of Hollywood, the incredibly flammable material used to make them making them easy prey to those fires. Some have been lost to time, deteriorating in what is termed vinegar syndrome due to the fact when film canisters are opened containing these films they smell like vinegar, their images gone for eternity. Others are just never found. It is this sort of film that makes up this film.Directed and written by Serge Bromberg it is the tale of a film that began shooting in 1964 led by famed director Henri-Georges Clouzot. American audiences will know his work mainly from two films, DIABOLIQUE in which two women murder one’s husband by drowning him in a bathtub and THE WAGES OF FEAR the story of a group of down on their luck men willing to transport nitroglycerine across treacherous roads in South America, later remade by William Friedkin as SORCERER.Bromberg opens the film (as well as discussing it a bit more in depth in one of the extras included on the Arrow release) by talking about his conversation with Clouzot’s widow and how he convinced her to allow him to tell the story of the film that never was. While she’d been asked before she was convinced to allow him to do so.Due to his previous successes Clouzot was given the go ahead by Columbia Pictures to shoot the film he dreamed of, INFERNO. The story itself revolves around a French hotelier Marcel (Serge Reggiani), his attractive wife Odette (Romy Schneider) and his obsessive jealousy towards his wife. While it might sound simple enough the plans Clouzot had for it were far from it.Rather than start filming right away Clouzot spent a number of weeks working with the technical crew to create a new film style unseen or used prior to this film. A combination of colors, light, lenses and prismatic effects were played with and viewed building up an arsenal from which he would create his film. Hours and film were used for the express purpose of seeing what could be accomplished on film. The end results are amazing and interesting to watch, accomplishing things that could easily be done now with effects and computers. But the time here is 1963 and these weren’t invented yet. To see what he achieved is a thrill to behold for film fans.Weeks were spent doing these test shots. In addition to that Clouzot attempted to plan out what he intended to shoot in minute detail. Storyboards were drawn and deeply intricate directions were listed on diagrams and scripts to be used, providing them with a battle plan that should have resulted in time saved and a well-timed shoot.Good fortune smiled on him with the perfect location to shoot the film. The only problem was that the lake was to be drained to provide power nearby within weeks and the shoot had to be finished by then. The planning should have allowed this to happen. But then Clouzot’s own obsession took hold. Shoots and reshoots, other obstacle placed in his way and crews that were left confused by his direction moved the production behind schedule. Eventually occurrences took place that resulted in the film never being finished.But that doesn’t mean that the footage shot in the weeks prior to actual filming as well as the footage that was filmed before production shut down were gone. Bromberg has formed the story of what happened into an interesting film, combining that footage with interviews of the crew members that remain as well as certain sequences filmed with stand-ins for the main actors. The end result is a combination of a look at what could have been as well as a lesson in what not to do if you plan on creating a film.All of this makes for an interesting film. But more than that the images captured with that test footage offer a feast for the eyes showing some brilliantly shot images that make you wish the film had been completed. Shot mostly in black and white, the dream sequences, moments where we are placed inside the head of Marcel and in his madness induced jealousy, are shot in color. While the black and white test footage is impressive the color moments are imaginative and beautiful.Arrow Video has released this film in a beautiful hi definition blu-ray format. The extras here show why Arrow is one of the best companies around. They include French cinema expert Lucy Mazdon discussing at length the films of Clouzot and the problems behind INFERNO, “They Saw Inferno” a featurette with unseen material and further insight into the making of the original film, as mentioned earlier an introduction with director/writer Serge Bromberg, an interview with Bromberg, a stills gallery, the original trailer, a reversible sleeve with artwork by Twins of Evil and for the first pressing only an illustrated collector’s booklet with writing on the film by Ginette Vincendeau.Arrow has outdone themselves on this one and lovers of French cinema and the films of Clouzot will want to add this one to their collections. If you love movies then this is one to take a look at, seeing not just what was shot but the descent into potential madness that befell the director shooting a film about a man’s descent into madness. The end result is a dazzling documentary that delights the senses and is worth watching.

Ein muss für jeden Fan! Grandios und sehr empfehlenswert!Würde ich sofort wieder kaufen! Toll inszeniert und mit hoher Qualität!

This documentary about the aborted making of Henri-Georges Clouzot's ambitious and doomed film 'L'Enfer' in the early 1960s is completely riveting from start to finish. Bromberg apparently met Clouzot's widow in a broken down lift and on hearing tales about the unfinished film, immediately decided to investigate it. The result is the presentation of a series of scenes and tests filmed by Clouzot and unseen for decades, interspersed with interviews from the technicians who worked on the film.'L'Enfer', as anyone who has seen Claude Chabrol's version of the script from 1994 will know, is a relentless, pessimistic drama of marital jealousy. What surprised me on seeing this documentary though was that Clouzot seemed to be planning to make the film a balance of realistic drama (in monochrome) and wild, experimental, often almost abstract dream-visions in colour and inverted colour. The examples of the colour experiments often look like miniature art films in their own right, and are perhaps even more jaw-dropping here than they would have been in the final cut of a finished film. With an unlimited budget, the possibilities were endless, which is one of the reasons the film production seemed to grind to a halt.Anyone interested in film oddities, French cinema, experimental cinema, Clouzot's other works, and Romy Schneider's films will be drawn to this. It slao makes an interesting companion piece to 'Lost in La Mancha' about Terry Gilliam's collapsed Don Quixote project.Highly recommended, the film comes with a near-hour long extra documentary which contains more footage and interviews. The picture quality is superb throughout.

Je m'attendais à voir l'oeuvre originale, mais c'est un documentaire sur un film "l'enfer" qui n'a jamais été terminé. Le documentaire est bon (image d'archives, montage et bande sonore très bien), mais je m'attendais à voir une oeuvre de fiction. Soyez avisé.

Obsessive creative film making by confirmed geniuses unhampered by financial constraints has always compelled my attention. Whether successful (Apocalypse Now) or failure (Day of the Locust), condemned (Riefenstahl's OLYMPIA) or downright weird (Jodorowsky's HOLY MOUNTAIN), these examples of hubris hold my attention and fill me with wonder. Imagine my delight that SERGE BROMBERG -my nominee for the most charming, amusing and useful Frenchman working in cinema today- has gotten hold of unfinished film by the great director Henri Georges Clouzot starring Romy Schneider featuring lots of experimental color and visual effects and psychological torture all around. Could that be the best thing ever? You bet your bootie! And you know what? It is!Thank you Serge Bromberg! I love you!

Terrible les sous-titres sont figés dans l'image...