Based on the trivia, Hitchcock made Psycho specifically to outdo Les Diaboliques...did he succeed? Which do you think is a better movie.
Personally, I think Les Diaboliques wins by a nose. It's definitely not as well paced as Psycho (the beginning exposition takes a little too long), but the scenes are genuinely creepier, more haunting, and more thrilling than in Psycho. Any other opinions?
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All I know is a still take baths, but no longer take showers.
shareI agree. Psycho is great, but was inspired by this, clearly.
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As a successor to Les Diaboliques, Psycho ranks up there in my top movies list.
But without Les Diaboliques one can suggest that Psycho would not have been made the way it was.
Both films offer the movie viewer two excellent overall approaches to film.
I'd say Les Diaboliques was the appetizer and Psycho was the main course. Psycho is a masterpiece that wins out because Hithcock was trying to outdo Clouzot in every department that was creepy in Diaboliques. It is clear that Psycho has more suspense from the opening of Marion Crane all the way to the finale with Norman in the prison cell. Diabolique built its story much slower and wasn't as revolutionary as having two twists in the same movie like Psycho was; the first being the main character getting killed off half way through the movie and secondly the shock conclusion. IMHO Hitch wins.
sharePsycho!!!
my vote history: http://www.imdb.com/mymovies/list?l=4847523&s=reverse_uservote
Psycho, by a wide margin. Not saying Diabolique was bad, but Psycho's a masterpiece while this movie was unimpressive.
shareBoth movies are amazing. But for me, Psycho is the "better" movie simply because the end was a total surprise. With Les Diaboliques, about 3/4 through the movie, I figured it out what was going on.
shareI second that, I watched Diabolique after hearing tons of admirations, I was not disappointed at all. Its a true gem, but to be very honest; I figured it out very quickly what would be the ending, it was a simple plot to me, I just couldn't believe what happened in Psycho, it was unthinkable.
sharePersonaly for me, Psycho wins (as it's my all time favourite movie)
but that's not to say that Diabolique isn't as good. What both films do stunningly well is create a rare atmosphere. What I love about Psycho is that when I first watched it the atmosphere of the film was unbarable (in the best way!) and even after it had ended, it stuck with you for ages afterwards. Diabolique is the only other film i've ever seen which has captured the same atmosphere to it! Both seem to make everything around you stop dead and become completely involved with every second of what's happeneing onscreen!
As i said Psycho wins but Diabolique is a very worthy second!
Les Diaboliques, if only because the action after the murder is more interesting and suspensive. Les Diaboliques (if you didn't predict the twists) keeps you wondering whether the husband is alive and playing tricks on them, if someone knows what they did and decided to toy with them, or if the husband is actually haunting them--each possibility equally plausible. It gives it an eerie, supernatural edge unmatched by Psycho. Psycho is amazing, but it didn't get under my skin like Les Diaboliques.
Both films are masterful at toying with our sympathies in all sorts of uncomfortable directions. And both films tripped over themselves at the end (Psycho with the overlong clinical speech explaining Norman Bates' psychology, Les Diaboliques with the private detective busting in on them--didn't Clouzot know that it's detrimental to pile on two major abrupt plot twists at once?) yet they both left with a genuinely creepy and ultimately satisfying feel.
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I think Bernard Herrmann is God, but I think that the bathroom climax of Les Diaboliques is more spooky because of the absence of music; it truly makes you feel like you're alone in that house.
"Go on, tell me...tell me something sweet. Smile at me and say I just misunderstood."
To me Les Diaboliques works best as a kind of a puzzle. It doesn't work as well on repeated viewings unlike Psycho. It's got a good cast but the Agatha Christie-esque intention to be over-plotted tends to make the film a tad campy.
Clouzot was a talented film-maker however. His Wages of Fear is a stunning film and Le Corbeau is one of the great paens to the virtues of misanthropy. His un-characteristic Quai des Orfevres is also an interesting take on the titular police force(the quivalent name in France for Scotland Yard). He also made a fascinating and entirely uncharacteristic documentary on Picasso, Les Mysteres de Picasso.
The bathroom scene in Psycho on repeated viewings or due to overexposure may not be frightening as much but the details and the discomfort it generates due to it's violation of private space, Marion's struggle and ultimate defeat and the fact that she's the main character gives it more layers. Whereas Les Diaboliques just wants to pull the rug under our feet.
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