Claude Chabrol
L'Enfer - L'inferno

Paul and Nelly seem like a happy couple. Owners of a hotel in the Pyrenees, they have a child and lead a tiring but ultimately satisfying life if it weren't for one small detail: Paul's jealousy. The man's feelings towards the woman go beyond the occasional outburst; they take on almost paradoxical characteristics. He follows her wherever she goes, lives in perpetual suspicion of betrayal, imagining her amorous encounters down to the smallest details. In reality, Nelly is a faithful woman (or at least there are no clues that would make any sane person think of adultery)—perhaps a little vain, flirtatious, but faithful. However, her husband does not believe her words, fails to justify her, and drags her into a never-ending nightmare.

I admit a flaw: Chabrol is one of the directors I know the least and love the least, perhaps due to my ignorance. I confess to having seen very little despite his extensive filmography, and he even provoked a strong feeling of indifference with his "Madame Bovary," which I approached with some enthusiasm, remembering how much I adored Flaubert's work. Well, with this "Hell," his forty-eighth feature film derived from an unfinished film from 1964 starring Romy Schneider and Serge Reggiani, Chabrol does not change my mind. But for credibility's sake, it's best to maintain a more objective tone.

Without a doubt, a plus is marked by the performance of the male lead, François Cluzet, one of the most famous French actors abroad and favored by Chabrol almost as much as the immense Isabelle Huppert, who is absent this time. He is tasked with portraying on screen the figure of a possessive husband who pretends to be nonchalant, a man obsessed with betrayal and willing, because of this obsession, to do the most pathetic and ridiculous things, without slipping into the grotesque. Cluzet succeeds flawlessly, realistically simulating the hysteria and frustration of desiring what he fights against. Paul derives pleasure from his suspicions—fantasies, imagining his woman with others and simultaneously savoring the idea of catching her, of shaming her and leading her to what he considers redemption: that she binds herself to him completely, that he manages to possess her both body and mind. In short, he relishes the idea of revenge. Unclassifiable is Emmanuelle Bear as Nelly. It is difficult to determine whether her performance is bland or if the character lacks depth, existing within the script solely as the object of Cluzet's desire. Only the mesmerizing beauty of some scenes remains.

The central interest of the screenplay remains the analysis of Paul's obsessive feelings. Chabrol deliberately chooses not to pursue any path except the sentimental investigation, to religiously follow the couple's affairs, a theme dear to many other colleagues, French and otherwise. Far from Bergman's lyricism, Fellini's dreamlike effervescence, or Allen's intellectual neuroses, Chabrol follows the story with a scientist's eye, adhering to reality and psychological data, so that the tremendous ordeal Paul inflicts on Nelly seems to the spectator the natural consequence of events, with neither victim nor perpetrator. What remains is the bitterness and anguish of an open rather than unfinished ending, flung open to eternity just like the hell in the title, which certainly ennobles the film by avoiding easy moralizing and taking sides either for or against the husband or wife. After all, we're talking about Chabrol, not "Men and Women"?

Yet there are weaknesses. Apart from Bear, "Hell" is laden with claustrophobic atmospheres that eventually exhaust rather than engage the viewer, and the technical expertise, far from supporting the overall effect, becomes an exercise in style, a dainty refrain. Everything seems excessively pre-planned in every detail, and hence annoyingly "perfect". Without the scathing satire of the provincial world—an aspect relegated to the margins—what remains is just the tiresome depiction of a bulimic love. Ultimately, the work redeems itself in the corner with the fast-paced rhythm of the final part and a surprise ending, dragging the viewer from boredom to attention.