Keswick Film Club - L'enfer

Synopsis

Not a weekend of hell, but two fascinating chances to experience the inferno of passion in L’enfer. Chabrol’s version, starring one of France’s top actresses, Emmanuelle Béart, (Manon des sources) was said by Time Out to be ‘a work of enthralling virtuosity’, and indeed, Chabrol, stalwart of the ‘nouvelle vague’, working alongside and in competition with such as Rohmer, Truffaut and Godard, gained the reputation of being ‘the French Hitchcock’ through this and similar films like Le Boucher, Le beau Serge, La Cérémonie and La Femme infidèle.

In this film, Paul (Francois Cluzet), the hardworking owner of a charming lakeside hotel, begins to suspect that his wife Nelly (Béart) is being unfaithful. As the pace and severity of Paul's delusions increase, so does the tension and drama in a brilliant exploration of the depths of a man’s disturbed psyche. Béart lights up the whole movie with her vivacious and sensuous performance as the wife Paul cannot trust.