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Diabolique [1996]
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Editorial
Amazon.co.uk Review
Diabolique is Jeremiah Chechik's 1996 revamped version of the 1955 French film noir tale of two teachers at a boys school conspiring to kill the headmaster (played in the remake by Chazz Palminteri of Jade and The Usual Suspects). The three assemble an intriguing triangle of revenge and deceit as the headmaster's abused and humiliated wife and mistress team up to get even. Mia Baran is the fragile wife with a delicate heart condition, portrayed by Isabelle Adjani (Queen Margot), and Sharon Stone (Basic Instinct) is the plotting, contemptuous mistress. Together they set out to wreak an unfortunate revenge, but as the story reveals itself, miscalculations abound as hidden agendas and secret lives are unexpectedly exposed. Chechik's new look and timeless setting give film noir audiences something neoteric and seductive to play with. A welcomed change to the film's story line is the fresh addition of Kathy Bates as a daunting private detective. Fans of Stone's will not be disappointed with the latest version of her "I-could-give-a-damn smoldering broad" technique and anyone not yet familiar with Chazz Palminteri will love watching him succeed as the ultimately despicable headmaster. --Michele Goodson
SHOCKING.... (LY BAD).
Review date: 2007-10-28 Rating: 2 out of 10
I guess this is the film that finally killed off Jeremiah Chechik's career as a movie director, but it's hard to sympathise with someone who could turn out two stinking turkeys in a row (the first being "The Avengers"). Maybe a remake of "Les Diaboliques" seemed like a good idea at the time, but unfortunately the script sucks and the casting is absolutely insane. Chazz Palminteri as a headmaster?! That's like casting Joe Pesci as a nuclear scientist. Sharon Stone is embarrassingly obvious in the vampish role, and Isabelle Adjani once again demonstrates her complete lack of taste when it comes to choosing her non-French film roles (remember "Ishtar"? I sincerely hope not). Diabolique's story is insultingly stupid and has more holes than a pensioner's y-fronts. Avoid!
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Reviews
Lame remake of 1955 French Classic
Review date: 2007-06-09 Rating: 4 out of 10
The plot has everything, a sadistic headmaster, his rich, sick and abused wife, his hard bitten mistress that lives with them, the women teaming up to murder him.
But everything falls apart as the main characters, the wife Mia Baran (Isabelle Adjani), the mistress Nicole Horner (Sharon Stone) and the husband Guy Baran (Chazz Palmineri) are all woefully miscast and struggle with the psychological nature of a plot that requires the subtle building up suspense, fear and terror.
The only success is the retired detective Shirley Vogel (Kathy Bates) who helps to instil some tension into the final section of the film with a touch of humour.
This film misses the real context of the original
Review date: 2006-06-09 Rating: 8 out of 10
This is a remake of the black and white adaptation of Boileau-Narcejac's novel. The shift from the French context to the American decor is nothing but a change of settings and it adds nothing. But it is extremely well built as a thriller and this American version adds a clearly stated sexual relationship between the two main women, the plotters. It also emphasizes this feminine presence by making the « inspector » a woman, which is unthinkable in the French context of the 1950s. And this woman can become an accomplice in the final cover-up, the final assassination of the ressuscitated victim, out of feminine understanding. The context of this let's say prep-school for boys is hardly described and does not correspond to the original French school for delinquents. We never get this idea that the kids are imprisoned and that the school is a reservation for anonymous survivors ghetto-ised out of the social war that is raging outside. And that is such « schools » that both the conservative right and the socialist left are asking for in France right now to take care of suburban young rebels who call themselves barbarians or the natives of the republic, be they black, brown, grey or white, which does not in anyway matter.
Dr Jacques COULARDEAU, University of Paris Dauphine & University of Paris I Pantheon-Sorbonne
four great actors,one great film
Review date: 2005-08-28 Rating: 8 out of 10
This is a film to watch for the quality of the acting alone.
It also has an interesting plot and dialogue.It would stand out as a good play for the stage and that gives you some idea of how good the dialogue and acting are.A beutiful schoolteacher (Adjani) decides to murder her bullying husband and is helped by her friend (Sharon Stone).But the schoolteacher accidentally sets a police detective (cathy bates) onto their trail.
Losing in the translation
Review date: 2004-05-23 Rating: 6 out of 10
A remake of a tense French original, this is a twist on the eternal triangle scenario as the two women attempt to dispose of their redundant lover.
Isabel Adjani owns a school for difficult boys: the most difficult of them is her brutish husband. Sharon Stone is his lover, drawn to the conclusion that life would be better without him. The two women plot a murder and execute it in chaotic fashion. The body, however, fails to lie down. Is he dead? Is he alive? Has someone seen them? Are they being blackmailed? And the very private eye of Kathy Bates is now investigating his disappearance.
As a plot, it has great potential. The cast is, potentially, excellent. But something is lost in the translation. What could and should have been a first-rate thriller is reduced to almost B-movie fare as plot and characterisation are subjected to Hollywood's ritual process of the bland leading the bland.
The whole production fails to crank up the tension and eroticism. Adjani's character is a former nun, an abused woman suffering from a heart condition: there is considerable potential here for sympathy, for drama, for erotic exploitation ... and yet the character comes across as insipid, most of the time reduced to a simpering, onlooker role.
Stone can deliver wonderful performances as a hard-bitten, assertive woman of the world, sexually predatory and self-confident ... yet the performance isn't quite convincing here. You feel she is reduced to a plastic stereotype and given no chance to envigorate her role. Even the explosive sexual tension between her and Adjani is reduced to the fizzle of a damp squib.
Bates, meanwhile, appears as a belligerent little rolly-poly detective with a sense of humour ... but her role doesn't quite get the comic leverage and dramatic presence it deserves.
All in all, the ingredients were there, but you are left feeling that while it tries hard, 'Diabolique' should have done much better.
Product Details/Specifications
Actor(s):
Kathy Bates
Isabelle Adjani
Spalding Gray
Sharon Stone
Chazz Palminteri
Creators:
Sharon Stone (Primary Contributor)
Isabelle Adjani (Primary Contributor)
Bill Todman Jr. (Producer)
Chuck Binder (Producer)
Gary Barber (Producer)
Don Roos (Writer)
Henri-Georges Clouzot (Writer)
Pierre Boileau (Writer)
Thomas Narcejac (Writer)
Director(s):
Recording label: Warner Home Video
Manufacturer: Warner Home Video
EAN: 7321900142045
Binding: DVD
Number of items: 1
Format: Dubbed, PAL, Widescreen,
Release date: 2002-01-28
Number of discs: 1
Aspect ratio: 1.85:1
Audience rating: Suitable for 18 years and over
Region code: 2
Running time: 103 minutes
Theatrical release date: 1996-03-22
Language: Arabic (Subtitled)
Language: Dutch (Subtitled)
Language: English (Subtitled)
Language: French (Subtitled)
Language: German (Subtitled)
Language: Italian (Subtitled)
Language: Spanish (Subtitled)
Language: English (Original Language)
Language: French (Dubbed)
Language: Italian (Dubbed)