{"id":827,"date":"2007-06-25T17:37:16","date_gmt":"2007-06-25T16:37:16","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/archives\/2007\/06\/25\/dvd-pick-hg-clouzot-box-set\/"},"modified":"2007-07-03T21:48:49","modified_gmt":"2007-07-03T20:48:49","slug":"dvd-pick-hg-clouzot-box-set","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/2007\/06\/25\/dvd-pick-hg-clouzot-box-set\/","title":{"rendered":"DVD Pick: H.G. Clouzot Box Set"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"H.G.<\/a>Henri-Georges Clouzot<\/strong><\/a> is one of the great masters of suspense and Optimum have a new box set<\/a> out featuring three of his best films: Le Corbeau<\/span><\/a>, Quai<\/span> Des Orfevres<\/span><\/a> and the enduring classic The Wages of Fear<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Seen by many as the “French Hitchcock”, his reputation rose and fell throughout his 40 year career, but his best work still resonates today.<\/p>\n

Clouzot began his film making career as a screenwriter, but it wasn’t until the early 1940’s that he made his mark as a director.<\/p>\n

Le Corbeau<\/span><\/strong><\/a> (1943) is a noir<\/span> thriller set in a small French town about a spate of poison pen letters. A dark and intriguing drama starring Pierre Fresnay<\/span> and Ginette<\/span> Leclerc<\/span>, it was actually made under the occupation and thus attracted a good deal of controversy.<\/p>\n

After the Allied liberation of France in 1944, it sparked a debate: was it a work of resistance or an act of collaboration with the Nazi’s? Today it is a fascinating film precisely because of that dichotomy. However, the furore meant that Clouzot was suspended from film making for two years.<\/p>\n

In 1947 he returned with Quai<\/span> des<\/span> Orf\u00e8vres<\/span><\/strong><\/a>, another thriller dealing <\/span>with the dark side of France. A music hall singer (Suzy Delair<\/span>) is willing to go to any lengths to further her career, much to the chagrin of her husband and manager Maurice (Bernard Blier<\/span>).<\/p>\n

When an admiring businessman is found dead, Maurice become the suspect in an investigation headed by Inspector Antoine (Louis Jouvet<\/span>). A smart and clever drama, it won at the Venice Film Festival and helped reestablish his career. Released here on DVD for the first time, it has also been remastered.<\/p>\n

However, it was with The Wages of Fear<\/strong><\/a> (1953) that Clouzot<\/span> was propelled to international acclaim. Widely regarded as his masterpiece (along with Les Diaboliques<\/span><\/a>) it is a magnificent drama filled with suspense. Based on the novel by Georges Arnaud<\/span>, it deals with four drivers stuck in a <\/span>dead end South American town.<\/p>\n

When a US oil company offers them $2000 dollars a man to transport a deadly cargo of nitroglycerin across the country they sign up. What follows is a tense and brilliantly constructed thriller exploring the desperation of the drivers who take on the challenge: Yves Montand<\/span><\/a>, Folco<\/span> Lulli<\/span><\/a>, Peter Van Eyck<\/a> and Charles Vanel<\/span><\/a>.<\/p>\n

The first half of the film sets the scene with a slow but biting precision whilst the grueling second section detailing the drive itself is a full blooded attack on the audiences nervous system. A classic film of its era, it inspired a remake<\/a> by William Freidkin<\/span><\/a> in 1977 and more recently has even been referenced in modern TV shows such as Lost<\/a> (a minor, unseen character called “Montand<\/span>” is named after Yves Montand<\/span>).<\/p>\n

The Henri-George Clouzot Collection <\/strong>is out now from Optimum Home Entertainment<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

> Buy the DVD box set from Amazon UK<\/a>
\n> Find out more about H.G. Clouzot at Wikipedia<\/a>
\n> Check out the IMDb entry for H.G. Clouzot<\/a>\n<\/p>\n

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 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Henri-Georges Clouzot is one of the great masters of suspense and Optimum have a new box set out featuring three of his best films: Le Corbeau, Quai Des Orfevres and the enduring classic The Wages of Fear. Seen by many as the “French Hitchcock”, his reputation rose and fell throughout his 40 year career, but […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,5],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=827"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/827\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=827"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=827"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.filmdetail.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=827"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}