Claudio Carvalho The owner of the Hotel Du Lac, Paul Prieur (François Cluzet), gets married with the beautiful and sexy Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) and they have a boy. Nelly loves Paul and is pleasant with guests, and the insecure Paul feels that she is a woman out of his league.When Nelly spends some time with the handsome guest Martineau (Marc Lavoine), Paul follows her and becomes paranoid and delusional believing that she is unfaithful to him. His increasing obsession turns into madness that ends in an announced tragedy."L'Enfer" is a dramatic tale of insecurity, paranoia and madness by Claude Chabrol, with the story of a man that lives in hell with his jealousy and brings this hell to the life of his wife. Last time that I had seen this film was on 23 April 2000 and the story is timeless and has not aged. The tragic conclusion is predictable and my only remark is the attitude of Doctor Arnoux, who should have foreseen that the safety of Nelly was in danger with the insane Paul. Emmanuelle Béart is wonderfully cast to justify the obsession of Paul. My vote is eight.Title (Brazil): "Ciúme - O Inferno do Amor Possessivo" ("Jealousy - The Hell of the Possessive Love")Note: On 04 February 2018, I saw this film again.

alicecbr Why would a woman stay with a man who is trying to kill her? Why would she even spend the night with a crazy man, when the hospital is coming to take him to the loony bin the next morning? There's too much deaux ex machina stuff going on here.But the writers did foresee this objection: they made her kinda simple, a hip-swinging flirt, oblivious to the effect she has on other men and her increasingly more jealous husband. She even keeps it up when she finds out about his jealous, but in her stupidity, she thinks it means he truly loves her.There has been another French movie on this same subject, with the husband becoming increasingly more jealous. As much as I love these Frenchies, with their afternoon delights, I find it weird that the French MEN would make 2 great movies about a French MAN becoming jealous. If it's so well accepted, why this? Maybe there's a lot of suppression going on.And here's another point well made: financial problems can drive you crazy. He was not having a lot of business, and his insanity causes him to drive even more away as he rages in full hearing of his guests....and later, full sight. Too bad we're not allowed any insight into the origins of his craziness. Those voices don't just come in out of the blue.The woman, Emmanuelle, was truly beautiful and would have had to have been in order to carry this movie off. His insanity did have some realistic triggers: men DID covet her, and she sure didn't try to hide her charms. Reminded me of Raquel Welch wearing her skin tight red t-shirt in "Mother, Jugs and Speed", then upbraiding the drivers for calling her 'Jugs'. A wee bit inconsistent, hypocritical of the characters in both movies.The male actor was superior in showing all the nuances of jealousy on his face, running desperately to parallel his wife's water-skiing escapade on the back of the Lothario's boat and finding her getting back on the boat after putting on her shoes. If I know my husband is jealous, I"m not going to further inflame him by going off with a guy like this. Again, she was kinda dumb and childish but that could have been made a bit more obvious.Like the ending. No one knows what really happened. Time for a sequel. This movie was just shown at the MFA in Boston. It calls for a re-run, but having been jealous myself, it's rather painful to watch.

christopher-underwood Surprisingly good, in fact rather splendid late Chabrol. We start with a young couple full of love and optimism as they bounce about running their hotel, bringing up baby and making eyes at each other. The wife seems to naturally do this semi flirting semi friendly stuff with everyone and gradually her husband begins to become jealous. We are never 100% certain but what at first seems six of one and half a dozen of the other descends into the 'hell' of the title as the green eyed monster truly comes to fruition. Initially delightful, this movie gets as dark as it possibly could and we are gripped, even perhaps more than with a Hitchcock as the terrible finale awaits.

MartinHafer I just finished watching the stunning film L'Enfer and I couldn't wait to review it. The movie was written by one of my favorite French writers, Clouzot, so it was bound to be a good movie. Well, not exactly. In fact it was not just good but exceptional and is one of the better films I have seen in some time.With my background as a psychotherapist, I have to say that it was a brilliant psychological study of madness. All too often, films don't get it right--here, it's perfect.The story is about a jealous husband. At first, he shows signs of anxiety--trouble sleeping, irritability and distractability. Later, this slowly evolves to include paranoia, as he begins to suspect his lovely wife of infidelity. Well, at this point it MIGHT be that the husband is mildly mentally ill or perhaps he just has a very active imagination. However, very slowly the paranoia becomes more and more delusional and it's obvious this is no mild illness. In fact, it becomes increasingly obvious he is exhibiting strong symptoms of paranoid schizophrenia. However, his wife refuses to believe--thinking instead that he is just a jerk and not potentially dangerous. However, he ultimately becomes violent and accusatory--and the violence continues to escalate.So far, this is a magnificent portrait of mental illness, as this SLOWLY developed and evolved. Unfortunately, one inexplicable part of the movie keeps it from getting a score of 10. When he ultimately beats and rapes her, she goes to the doctor. When the husband is confronted by the doctor, the husband VERY QUICKLY and CONVINCINGLY decompensates. It is obvious to anyone with an IQ greater than 14 that he is VERY dangerous and MUST be hospitalized as soon as possible to protect himself and others. BUT, the doctor sends them home--to come back in the morning!!! While it is VERY clever of the doctor to convince the paranoid husband the it is the wife who will be hospitalized, I can't imagine any doctor not calling for an immediate ambulance or the police to apprehend and forcibly commit him.Despite this flaw, what happens next and the absolute uncertainty of the ending is remarkable--you really aren't sure exactly what happened because it is all shown through the eyes of the husband and his own reality ultimately disintegrates and he is uncertain exactly what has occurred. This blending of paranoid schizophrenia with signs of disorganized schizophrenia was brilliant, as some people diagnosed with paranoid schizophrenia later become MUCH more more fragmented and irrational. A WONDERFUL JOB BY THE WRITER, DIRECTOR and the MARVELOUS ACTOR PLAYING THE TROUBLED HUSBAND--WOW, what a great and convincing job! Too bad there was that little slip-up with the way the doctor behaved.