Diabolique | | Cast : | Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri | | Director : | Jeremiah S. Chechik | | Studio : | Warner Home Video | | Format : | Color, Widescreen, Dolby | | Released Date : | March 22, 1996 | | DVD Released Date : | June 01, 2004 | | Language : | Unknown (Dubbed), English (Dubbed), French (Dubbed), French (Subtitled), English (Subtitled), Spanish (Subtitled), English (Original Language) | | Audience Rating : | R (Restricted) | | | BUY THIS DVD FROM AMAZON |
Customer Reviews
| Rating |  | | Date | July 02, 2005 | | Summary | STONE COLD STONE | Content
 | Sharon Stone may be the distaff side to Mickey Rourke. These two performers know how to play sleaze and Stone once again provides a cold-hearted finish to her role in this mediocre version of the French classic. The movie might have had more oomph if they had cast someone other than Isabelle Adjani as her partner in crime. Undeniably beautiful, Adjani just doesn't have the cajones to hold up her end of the movie with the flashy Stone. Another factor is the miscasting of Chazz Palminteri as the worthless husband/lover. He is so wooden in his performance that his fate is neither cheered or jeered. Although the movie gets a boost from the appearance of Kathy Bates as the sly detective, even she can't bring enough life to justify this remake. So why three stars? It held my interest and kept me guessing for a while, but it's strangely convoluted ending doesn't really fulfill the plot's thrust. One plus is Randy Edelman's scrumptious score; it fits the movie perfectly. |
| Rating | | | Date | June 27, 2005 | | Summary | Blame The Director-Not the Cast | Content
| With some of Hollywood's worst trash on his resume, Director Jeremiah Chechik gives us something slightly better than his worst ("The Avengers") and much worse than his best ("Benny and Joon"). This oddly unsatisfying 1996 remake of the classic 1955 French thriller illustrates Hollywood's ham handed ability to turn a classic suspense tale into a weak atmosphere piece. I say oddly because Isabelle Adjani and Sharon Stone are together on the screen for almost the entire film and the two actresses truly bring out the best in each other. So you have a long series of well-played scenes by fine actresses, but they are strung together into a slow paced story line that lacks unity and consistent motivation. Which could be caused by a lot of things but is most likely the result of trimming in post-production, in which important unifying elements were left on the cutting room floor. Or it could be that the director and production designer just failed to translate the writer's vision onto the screen.
Since this ultimately this is a story about an evil character who develops a sentimental side, it is absolutely critical that this process is communicated to the audience. The audience should not just be surprised by the ending but should be able to think back and see all the motivational pieces click into place. In this regard the movie is a complete failure.
Then there is the issue of cheating. Because we only know what he wants to tell us, a director has a variety of legit ways to introduce misdirection and surprise into a film. But occasionally a director lacks the integrity and vision to play by the rules. Such is the case here as only the audience sees the underwater shot of a clearly drowned Guy (Chazz Palminteri). It is shown to convince us that he is dead but this then makes his reanimation impossible. Plus it is fairly useless because you know that he has to come back for there to be much of a story. That is cheating and there is more cheating in the unintentionally comical climatic scene. The beauty of the original movie was the absence of cheating and the macabre irony of the ending. All that is missing.
Whatever, it means that the only reason to watch this version of "Diabolique" is for the acting of Adjani and Stone. Although Adjani was 40-41 years old when she made this film, she has lost little of her beauty. While she was probably the world's most beautiful actress in her twenties, there is simply no debate that she was the most beautiful 40 year-old in cinema history. Stone pretty much plays her hard-as-nails self but she is given some great lines and her character is a great contrast to the ethereal take Adjani gives to her own character.
If you are looking for a better but less obvious remake of the original "Diabolique", track down 1971's "Let's Scare Jessica To Death". This almost forgotten horror classic is truly scary. It has much better production design than 1996's "Diabolique", with creepy whispering and images that stay with you and creep you out even weeks later. Jessica is a woman recently released from a mental "institution" who goes to a farm in a quiet rural area. The odd locals and their local legends begin to mess with Jessica's head as her husband and his secret girlfriend attempt to scare her to death. |
| Rating | | | Date | May 13, 2005 | | Summary | Two women. One man. The Combination Can Be Murder! | Content
| First of all... this movie has a lot of idiot reviews for it. You have people reviewing it with no explanation, and people reviewing it talking about the soundtrack because they've never seen the film. Learn how to reveiw people... anyways.
This movie is the remake of the classic 1955 thriller Les Diaboliques or The Devils... which fails at remaking it in a lot of ways. However this movie has a lot going for it such as the director. Jeremiah S. Chechik has directed films such as National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation(Chevy Chase, one I loved), Benny And Joon(Johnny Depp), and The Avengers(Uma Thurman). So the pace and thrill of those movies can relate a lot to Diabolique.
This movie is just what my titles says. There's a wife and a husband who are both teachers... the husband being the teacher every student hates. When the soft hearted wife and friend, plan on the murder of the husband.
Isabelle Adjani is the star actress to this mystery/thriller, as the shy nervous murderous wife. A girl who no one has heard of and who I've only seen in the 1979 Nosferatu. Sharon Stone who is best known for as the hot blonde in Basic Instinct(Michael Douglas). Portrays the other teacher who helps and plans out the husbands murder terrifically. Chazz Palminteri best known for in the movie A Bronx Tale(Robert De Niro)... gives a great agressive cheating husband performance. Kathy Bates who was fascinating in one of the best thrillers Misery... gives a great humorous detective role in Diabolique. A pheonomenal cast don't you think?
The action in this movie is very slow with a few long gaps throughout the story telling. The blood and gore just isn't there, but it still gives you a kind of terror. For being a mystery, this movie delivers 110% and is worth the wait to watch the surprising twist.
I can't say a whole lot about Diabolique, except that it does deliver everything a movie can. There's dozens of better mysteries and suspense movies you can watch ahead of this one. I just know that when I first watched this, it was pretty unique for it's quiet eerie little suspense. You have to watch it if you haven't already, buying it is your choice. |
| Rating | | | Date | October 15, 2004 | | Summary | Are we reviewing the soundtrack, or the movie? | Content
| I have no idea why on earth Amazon sees any reason to combine reviews for the movie (I never saw it, I have no idea if it's any good, and I don't even care) with reviews for the soundtrack (It's great music). Are they unable to realize that a soundtrack CD can be appreciated on its own completely apart from the movie, what the movie was about, or if it was any good? The soundtrack is good, I'm reviewing the soundtrack and not the movie. Pay attention and don't let the bad movie reviews here reflect AT ALL on the reviews of the soundtrack (aside from Amazon's averaging system which in this case is messed up). |
| Rating | | | Date | January 06, 2004 | | Summary | Feeding the male libido | Content
| This is a sexploitation thriller but not all that bad, mainly because it is played somewhat tongue-in-cheek so that the plot absurdities might be overlooked in the interest of high camp, or at least in the interest of a mild diversion, and also because the women are diabolically diverting each in her own way. Especially effective in a satirical performance is Sharon Stone as Nicole Horner, a duplicitous siren teaching math at a boy's boarding school. (Just the thought conjures up visions of a vampish Mary Kay Letoureau, although director Jeremiah Chechik studiously avoids that angle.) Her partner in crime is French actress Isabelle Adjani who plays Mia Baran, an ex-nun who is the owner of the school unhappily married to (after being seduced by, it appears) the school's sadistic task master Guy Baran played with a steady macho malevolence by Chazz Palminteri. Adjani, whom I recall (vividly) from Truffaut's L'Histoire d'Adele H. (1975) in which she played Victor Hugo's daughter Adele, obsessively in love with an English army lieutenant who didn't want her. The masochistic persona employed there is revisited here as Mia is used by both her husband and Nicole Horner, who is also Guy's mistress. Coming lately onto the scene is Kathy Bates as a man-despising, middle-aged, slightly butch Nancy Drew who doesn't let a partial mastectomy slow her down as she sleuths about looking for clues. She has some fine one-liners, but perhaps the best in the film comes from Sharon Stone. Two of the school's middle-aged bores have just come upon Stone and Adjani in the courtyard. Stone's ever-present cigarette inspires this from one of the men: "Don't you know that second-hand smoke kills?" Sharon Stone maneuvers past him, blows smoke in his face, and replies, "Not reliably." This is a remake of Les Diaboliques (1955) starring Simone Signoret which I have not seen. My guess is that the French version played it straight and made the ending at least plausible. Here we have not only a ridiculous ending but a plot in dire need of a plot doctor. I have also not seen the TV version, Reflections of Murder, starring that quintessential sex-kitten (and personal favorite) Tuesday Weld. Bottom line: see this for Isabelle Adjani, whose over the top performance is garnished with an au naturale glimpse, and for Sharon Stone who is at her diabolical best. Be aware however that if sexual exploitation of the male libido is not your cup of tea, you will not like this movie, and even if it is, you may find the story more than a bit silly. |
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