Date: 2007-11-12 06:11 Subject: Le Salaire de la peur Security: Public

I think it's safe to say that I have returned to the world of film appreciation. The last 4 films I have watched were all in French with English subtitles, and all were black & white with the exception of La Planete Sauvage (Fantastic Planet).

First was Les Diaboliques (shortened to Diabolique for the U.S. release) which hooked me once again on the "Thriller/Suspense/Horror That Doesn't Suck" genre. Even though the ending was ruined for me by Bravo's "100 Scariest Movie Moments" countdown, it still scared the Hell out of me. I was glued to the screen with my fists clenched around the nearest available object like I was watching Detective Milton Arbogast slowly climb the stairs in the mansion behind the Bates Motel.

I, and many online reviewers, believed that suspense couldn't get better than Les Diaboliques. Then I bought Henri-Georges Clouzot's other classic, The Wages Of Fear (Le Salaire de la peur). I'm probably still riding the high from watching this masterpiece but I believe this is the greatest thriller I've ever seen.

It starts in a small South American town full of vagrants and wanderers that can't escape. An American oil company has employed many of the town's residents, and most of these employees have died due to lenient safety precautions. A huge oil fire is burning on the other side of the mountain, and they need nitroglycerin to put it out. But, they don't have the proper equipment to deliver it. So they hire 4 of the vagrants to drive trucks full of nitroglycerin 300 miles over bad roads and mountain terrain.

The trip begins an hour into the movie, and for the remaining 88 minutes I felt as though my heart was going to burst out of my chest. The essay in the booklet accompanying the Criterion DVD describes the film as a "seismic assault" and I can't think of a better description. Clouzot and Hitchcock, who are now equals in my mind, both realized the same thing: The best suspense comes from things that don't happen. You keep waiting and waiting for something horrible you just know will happen, but it doesn't, and the tension just gets thicker and thicker until you want to end the movie and get some fresh air but you CAN'T because YOU NEED TO KNOW WHAT HAPPENS

I'm hooked. So hooked in fact, that I want to seek out the American remakes even though I know I'll hate them. (Les Diaboliques was remade in '96 as Diabolique with Nicole Kidman, and Wages Of Fear was remade by William Friedkin in 1977 as Sorceror because William Friedkin is just damn weird.)

Next up on my viewing schedule, Kaneto Shindô's Onibaba. And then a trip to Borders for more Criterion. I think I'll work on Samurai films and Japanese horror next (Jigoku looks very interesting)