He has certainly been known as cynical and biting towards his fellow human beings. Le Corbeau didn’t exactly endear him to many of his countrymen, despite being widely seen. Do see the documentary Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Inferno, on the disastrous but fascinating making of his bold experimental film. Do you mean Quai des Orfevres not Brumes? That’s a good un.
Yes, Clouzot was a dark, dark guy.
As far as I know, I think he had a legitimate father, though.
—PolarisDiB
The equation of evil with illegitimacy is to be firmly discouraged. “Gods, stand up for bastards!” (King Lear, Act 1, Scene 2)
@ Kenji
Thanks, I did mean Orfevres. Changed.
Before watching this I had just heard that he was an equal to Hitchcock for his suspenseful films. I have read some about Le Corbeau and the reactions it got that basically stopped him working for a while.
I was shocked that he ended Wages the way he did as I expected to be able to breathe a sigh of relief and share in Mario’s success. I wondered if Clouzot was going through a period of depression of something else that shaped his decision.
@ PolarisDiB
I hadn’t realized he was so dark and it caught me completely off guard. It doesn’t put me off watching more by him but I will certainly go into them with different expectations.
Kenji
I do not mean to disparage illegitimacy. But there was just no other way to describe what Clouzot did to me.
He’s darker than Hitch. Wages of Fear is his most suspenseful i’d say, a real heart-pounder. He knew how to efficiently construct a tale and in some films play with the audience too (e.g Diaboliques)- the experimental risk of Inferno all the more of a surprise, really, at least based on the films i’ve seen.
Tariq, ha, fear not, i’m used to it, but after Polarisdib’s reply i realised it was time to stand up for a long victimised group.
Clouzot had quite a hard life, impoverished and also spent years in the 30s in a sanatorium. He was notoriously difficult with actors, as with Inferno. I’m sure many considered him a bastard.
The dark view Clouzot had of the world (one I very much share) was arrived at thoughreason and logic. Blaming it on “illegitimacy” or anything else involving parent/child relations is beyond stupid.
He establishes a tone of near misanthropy in Le Corbeau and that quality remained his signature.
He did do a documentary on Picasso which was primarily concerned with the process of painting and it is quite worthwhile. I don’t doubt that Picasso’s rather sour personality appealed to him.
Just a man who didn’t have much trust for other people.
Clouzot’s movies have some of the most fascinating characters captured on celluloid
Tariq Rafiq
A long-time reader, this is my first post so please bear with me as I try to eloquently sum up a question I have that I felt compelled to post about H.G. Clouzot.
Clouzot has always sounded like a director I would like. I have a number of his films but had never actually seen anything by him. I decided to remedy this yesterday and chose The Wages of Fear as my introduction to him.
It is a wonderful film that takes its time in letting us see these characters and how they are surviving, before the tense drama of the truck journey begins. My problem is that I can’t believe Clouzot ended the film the way he did.
SPOILERS
Having only Mario survive and then him being given Jo’s money as well is wonderful and thoroughly well deserved. Then, as the villagers are dancing and celebrating Mario’s success, Mario too is celebrating and ‘dancing’. A great way to end. But it doesn’t and with no chance to saviour victory or enjoy his reward, Mario dies in a stupid accident. By ending the film with one last tragedy, Clouzot seems to me to be saying that ‘life is hard, and then you die’. A very bleak, nihilistic view of life not uplifting as I had hoped.
I have Les Diabolique and Quai des Orfevres that I am now itching to watch, but is the ending of Wages indicative of Clouzot’s outlook on life? Is this bleakness of life a thread that runs through all his films?