MovieChat Forums > Les diaboliques (1955) Discussion > Psycho or Les Diaboliques?

Psycho or Les Diaboliques?


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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Most definitely Les Diaboliques. Psycho was great but disappointing... And LD did more than make up for that disappointment

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"Most definitely Les Diaboliques. Psycho was great but disappointing... And LD did more than make up for that disappointment"


I also prefer Les Diaboliques for a couple of reasons.
But imho Psycho is a fabulous picture as well.
I've never heard anyone say they were 'disappointed' by Psycho.
Why do you say that?

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Both films are great, but I appreciate Les Diaboliques because it is the lesser known of the films. Plus, I didn't know the ending or any of the shocking twists and turns in the film. Seeing him stand up in the bathtub was just plain frightening. Fifty years after it was made!

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Definitely Les Diaboliques... it had humor, drama and even more suspense than psycho.....Definitely more things going on..... .and the twist was excellent... Did not see it coming...


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I love both, but i perfer Les Diaboliques better. excellent twist, great story, and great acting. I also liked it b/c to me there was an overwhelming sense of dread.


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I also love both films. But I first saw "Psycho" after pretty much knowing the story from beginning to end since it's so enormously popular. I only saw "Les Diaboliques" a few years ago not knowing what to expect and totally taken by surprise.

But if you go back to when the films first came out and disregard all of the slasher films that have come out since 1960 in an attempt to top it, "Psycho" is the clear winner. You have the genius of Hitchock's direction, an incredibly filmed murder of what was thought to be the main character (and the knife at no time is seen penetrating the skin!!), and a surprise reveal back when twist endings were mostly unknown.

So I've got to give it to "Psycho", though "Les Diaboliques" was enormously effective.

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i am a die-hard hitchcok fan....so i decided to watch this to see what he was competing against

major spoilers ahead
before i compare both i admit that both the twists were spoiled to me (damn those stupid movie shows)

now i gave both a 10/10

now in terms of build-up to the climax and the climax itself i have to admit Les Diaboliques clinches the victory...yes its a more scarier climax and this statement comes from a hitchcok fan

but as an overall movie psycho outsmarts it not near the end but at a half-way through ,, marion crane is sympathized and we begin to travel with and when she's murdered i got to say its possibly the most iconic shift i ever saw in a movie ..thats were psycho shines, ie more shocking instead of scaring..

and also psycho examines much stonger dark subjects like voyeurism,guilt more complexy than diaboliques...and also some more iconic shots like shower scene,the climax mother scence, also the score (never thought violins to be so cynical), Anthony Pekins brilliant performance ,makes psycho more classic
though diaboliques wins as a better suspense movie ,
overall as a complete package psycho wins,


but both are masterpieces -in the end cinema was truly benefited due to such a competition between the makers


click this
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0048473/

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I think that Psycho was definitely a good movie, but Les Diaboliques was much better. While Psycho was all in your face, popping out sorta thing, DIaboliques was much more suspenseful and scarier. My vote definitely goes to LD!! :)

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Psycho all the way. I couldn't get into Diabolique at all.

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Psycho because this movie sucks.


Veritas Aequitas

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Psycho, by a wide margin. Not saying Diabolique was bad, but Psycho's a masterpiece while this movie was unimpressive.


I agree exactly. In terms of pacing and atmosphere, Psycho impressed me with its brilliance, creepiness, unsettling nature, and winding plot. LD, meanwhile, seemed too slow on its pacing and not very suspensefully made in terms of atmosphere - the only part that really delievered was the ending, but even that was somewhat predictable and not worth the flat buildup. But that's just my opinion. :]

"And poof. Just like that, he's gone." - The Usual Suspects

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I prefer LD mostly because of the far superior ending. Psycho is great, but more of a conventional, spooky horror film with its iconic shocker elements that were often copied in later movies. The explanatory ending is really unnecessary and drags the movie down a bit IMO. I couldn't watch Psycho over and over either. Watching Anthony Perkins was fascinating though.

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I don't think they're even comparable.
Psycho by a very wide margin.

Les Diaboliques is just a well-executed, admittedly creepy mystery film.
Whereas Psycho is a searching examination of guilt, loneliness, sexual repression among other things. Norman Bates, to my mind, is one of the great cinematic creations. Just as important to cinema as Hamlet or Othello are to literature.

I could repeatedly watch Psycho just for the opening guilt ridden love scene or the office parlour conversation. Those scenes are not even among the film's set pieces. The dialogue in Les Diaboliques is trite and commonplace.

Even as a work of entertainment, Psycho comes ahead. It's got more big moments. Both the murders are genuinely shocking on first viewing if the audience hasn't read about it in advance. And yes, Vera Miles' "exploration" of the Bates mansion is just as suspenseful and lasts longer than Vera Clouzot's nightmarish walk at the end of LD. And ofcourse, Psycho can boast of one of the all-time great scores. It's also the work of a genuine auteur. Hitchcock's signature montage-driven visual style is stamped all over it. Les Diaboliques, on the other hand, relies more heavily on words and less on images.

I think this tendency to elevate Les Diaboliques is typical of those who're enamoured by "continental" films and dismissive of commercial Hollywood cinema made closer home. I wouldn't even rate Les Diaboliques above old 40s Hollywood thrillers like Lang's Woman in the Window or Tourneur's Cat People

I know a lot of people have problems with the psychologist's "babble" at the end of Psycho. I don't. I think it was Hitchcock's way of parodying psychiatrists and also those who buy into such elaborate "explanations". I remember Vera Miles giving Simon Oakland a rather quizzical, "I'm tired of your babble" kind of look during his talk :)

I think the climax gives Psycho the much needed dose of humour. Otherwise, the film would've seemed way too gruesome.

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As much as I love Hitchcock and all of his classics, this is probably the best suspense thriller I've ever seen - no wonder it spawned so many rip-offs and cheap remakes of it's kind. I must imagine the ending would have terrified the 50's audience (the slow building up of the climax is trully masterfully done). This movie kickstarted the whole new genre of suspense thrillers, and I view Psycho as just one the many remakes of this masterpiece.

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I prefer Psycho, but I think that Les Diboliques is the better film. I think the plot is better and some complain about the pacing, but I think for this film it could be no other way. It was maddening to watch, waiting, for the other shoe to drop exactly where I knew it would in Les Diaboliques. However, if you can for a moment imagine what it would have been like for, Christina a woman with a heart condition and a guilty conscience then you can understand why the film was paced the way it was and why it had to be that way. Also, the film showed a lot of people that were just not nice at all and there were no real heroes, so it was slow and without people with redeeming qualities. So, even though I didn't enjoy it, I would say that it's value as a story is quite high and the way it was carried out was nearly perfect. Psycho on the other was more enjoyable to watch as at least two characters were likable, it was faster paced, it was in English so I didn't have to strain to see difficult to read subtitles. I feel the acting was slightly better than the French film. But, on the other hand Psycho wasn't as good a in character development and the story line wasn't quite as good. The build up wasn't as carefully constructed either.

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doaboligue wins. psycho seems to have the better half syndrome.

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