2009 > France > Directed by Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea
With Serge Reggiani, Romy Schneider
A fascinating tale of a film that never was, this unusual documentary recounts the history of a film Henri-Georges Clouzot
set-out to make in 1964, a dark psychological study charting the mental disintegration of a hotel owner consumed by
jealousy at the supposed infidelity of his pretty flirtatious wife. The style was to be wildly experimental, closer to Man Ray
than Hitchcock to whom Clouzot had been frequently compared. After spending months experimenting with new ways to
shoot a film, the official shoot began, and Clouzot himself became obsessed shooting the same scenes over and over again,
driving many of his colleagues to the breaking point. Clouzot eventually suffered a heart attack, and the film was never
finished, but famed film historian/preservationist Serge Bromberg made it his obsession to find the footage from the 18
days of shooting and build a film around it. Intriguing as the story is, it is the surviving material itself that is the star. A
kaleidoscope of color, angles, filters, and technique, the footage reveals what an extraordinary masterpiece Inferno could
have been. Subtitled. More at clouzotsinferno.com 35mm
1 hr 42 min