Barbara Sommers
Henri-Georges Clouzot’s unfinished 1964 psycho-thriller L’Enfer is as tantalizing as it is frustrating. Despite remaining one of the most masterful of French directors, Cluozot inexplicably seems to have lost control of the big-budget production of L’Enfer. Although directors Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Mederea have managed to speak to numerous members of the original crew, this behind-the-scenes investigation has so little to say about the reasons behind Clouzot’s failure to complete the film. In spite of this, the undiminished power of Clouzot’s extraordinary images makes the documentary a fascinating watch.
Laure is heartbroken after her husband leaves her for another women. She checks into the resort hotel where they spent many happy moments, in order to kill herself. Her plans change after she overhears the lovemaking of a honeymoon couple in the next room, and her fantasies rekindle her passion.
An important drug lord settled in Marseille is suspected of having ordered the killing of an American agent, but it is impossible to impute him due to his political influences, so the dead agent's boss decides to hire the services of a hitman to kill him.
Benoit has been driven to voyeurism and impotence due to having a cold, treacherous industrialist as a father and an exhibitionist aunt who constantly parades around nude. Jean-Pierre is a thief. Isabelle is a runaway whose stepfather tried to rape her. When the three cross paths, criminal activity, rape, madness and murder follow in this psycho-drama filled with soft-core sex.
A playboy who refuses to give up his hedonistic lifestyle to settle down and marry his true love seeks help from a demented psychoanalyst who is having romantic problems of his own.
A young boxer Michel Maudet is sacked by his manager after a series of match defeats and is forced to look for a new job. He is engaged as secretary to a millionaire named Ferchaux who is in a hurry to flee the country when he discovers he has been implicated in a high-profile fraud.
