Released on: 2005
Rating: 5.30
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Les Diaboliques – review
Welcome rerelease for Henri-Georges Clouzot French suspense classic of 1955, with a powerful performance by Simone Signoret. By Peter Bradshaw
Henri-Georges Clouzot's Les Diaboliques, from 1955, is now on rerelease. The icily brilliant suspense thriller about a bathroom murder is said to have inspired Alfred Hitchcock to make Psycho, but I suspect Hitchcock may also have been fascinated by the Patrick-Hamiltonish nature of the plot and its final twist. The director's wife, Vйra Clouzot, plays Christina, the abused wife of Michel, a loathsome prep-school headmaster, superbly played by Paul Meurisse – a man openly having an affair with a teacher, Nicole (Simone Signoret), whom he is notorious for abusing quite as much as his wife. So Christina plots with Nicole to murder her husband, and square-jawed, square-shouldered Signoret plays the dominant "masculine" role in the plot, while scared, submissive Christina goes along with it. Satisfying, elegant and nasty.
Rating: 5/5
ThrillerPeter Bradshaw
guardian.»
- Peter Bradshaw
See full article at The Guardian - Film News »
The Lincoln Lawyer – review
A terrific La noir thriller with a career-best performance from Matthew McConaughey. By Peter Bradshaw
Here is the week's unexpected treat: a terrific La noir thriller based on a novel by Michael Connelly. It stars Matthew McConaughey, who gives a career-best performance as Mick Haller, a fast-talking criminal lawyer who has just regained his licence after some unspecified peccadillo; unable to afford an office, he does business on the move, from the backseat of his chauffeured Lincoln car. Haller catches a break when he's retained by super-rich-kid Louis Roulet, played by Ryan Phillippe, who's accused of rape and assault. John Romano's smart, savvy script motors along as we see how Hallet knows all the angles and how to work the system. It's a world of cynical lawyers cutting deals, careworn cops and cons brooding over sinister secrets. How about letting director Brad Furman adapt something by Carl Hiaasen or Elmore Leonard?»
- Peter Bradshaw
See full article at The Guardian - Film News »
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