Editing Les Diaboliques (film) (section)

==Production==
===Writing===
It was Clouzot's wife Vera who drew his attention to [[She Who Was No More|the Boileau-Narcejac novel]]. Clouzot read it through the night and optioned the rights in the morning.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.cinematheque.fr/article/1112.html|title=Histoire orale : le tournage des " Diaboliques " de Clouzot raconté par ceux qui l'ont vécu - La Cinémathèque française|website=www.cinematheque.fr|access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref> He and his brother Jean (who took the pseudonym Jérôme Géronimi)<ref name=":1" /> spent 18 months adapting the novel. In the book, the action takes place between [[Enghien-les-Bains]] and [[Nantes]] but Clouzot transposed it to [[Saint-Cloud]] and [[Niort]], his own birthplace.<ref name=":1" /> He wasn't particularly interested in the insurance scam that was the criminal motive in the book. He switched the gender of the murderers and invented the private-school setting.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Le cinéma policier français|last=Guérif|first=François|year=1986|publisher=Artefact|isbn=2851994034|page=113|oclc=489779740}}</ref> Susan Hayward suggests that the gender switch made by Clouzot was caused not so much by censorship considerations (in the source novel, Lucienne and Mireille turn out to be a pair of lesbian lovers), but by his desire to create a sizeable role for his wife.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|p=15}} The book has only one principal female character, Lucienne, since the supposed victim, Mireille disappears early on. Vera with her distinctly feminine demeanor was ill-suited for the role of Lucienne (called Nicole in the film). So in Clouzot's script, Mireille (now named Christina) is the one who has a weak heart, and is the object of manipulation of her husband Michel and his mistress Nicole. Clouzot also followed the convention that the culprits should be exposed by the detective in the end (another departure from the novel where the authors let them get away).<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://archive.org/details/frenchfilmnoir0000buss_n0r7/page/24/mode/2up|title=French Film Noir|last=Buss|first=Robin|date=2001|publisher=[[Marion Boyars Publishers|Marion Boyars]]|isbn=0-7145-3036-0|location=London|page=24|oclc=44652477|url-access=registration}}</ref>

===Casting===
Clouzot cast [[Simone Signoret]] in the role of Nicole. He previously filmed her husband [[Yves Montand]] in ''[[The Wages of Fear]]'', and the two couples became friends. The director was also aware of Vera's limitations as an actress and needed someone to lend her support in such a demanding role. Signoret signed an eight-week contract but the shooting actually took 16 weeks. She ended up being paid for only eight weeks of work despite staying until the end of the filming because she neglected to read the small print.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|p=16}} Signoret's co-star Paul Meurisse also recalls in his memoirs that the actress was further bemused by Clouzot's constant attempts to find clever ways of lighting Vera's face while muting the light on Signoret so she wouldn't upstage his wife.<ref>{{Cite book|title=Les éperons de la liberté|last=Meurisse|first=Paul|date=1979|publisher=R. Laffont|isbn=2221002644|location=Paris|oclc=5618616}}</ref>

Clouzot knew [[Paul Meurisse]] back from 1939 when the latter was trying to pursue a singing career. Clouzot then was trying to sell his song lyrics to [[Édith Piaf|Edith Piaf]], Meurisse's lover at the time. By the late 1940s Meurisse had become an established stage and screen actor, known for the roles of icy and sophisticated villains, and he seemed a natural choice for the role of Michel.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|pp=17–18}}

The film featured two Clouzot regulars: [[Pierre Larquey]] as M. Drain and [[Noël Roquevert]] as M. Herboux. [[Michel Serrault]] made his screen debut as M. Raymond, one of the schoolteachers. [[Charles Vanel]]—who previously co-starred in Clouzot's ''The Wages of Fear''—was cast as the seemingly inept Inspector Fichet.

Clouzot also auditioned 300 children and selected 35. Among them were Jean-Philippe Smet (the future [[Johnny Hallyday]]), [[Patrick Dewaere]]'s brother Yves-Marie Maurin, and [[Georges Poujouly]], who previously received acclaim in [[René Clément]]'s ''[[Forbidden Games]]''.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|p=19}}

===Filming===
The filming began on August 18, 1954 and finished on November 30 the same year.<ref name=":0" /> Clouzot asked his assistant Michel Romanoff to find a suitable filming location for the boarding school. The latter discovered a decrepit chateau in [[L'Étang-la-Ville|L'Etang-la-Ville]] between Saint-Cloud and the [[Bois de Boulogne|Bois-du-Boulogne]].<ref name=":1">{{Cite web|url=https://www.nouvelobs.com/cinema/20171027.OBS6631/les-diaboliques-histoire-d-un-tournage-electrique.html|title=Les Diaboliques", histoire d'un tournage électrique|last=Loison|first=Guillaume|date=2017-11-07|website=L'Obs|access-date=2019-11-19}}</ref> The building and its surroundings matched the director's vision perfectly since they projected the desired mood of decay and neglect. The adjacent swimming pool was dirty and full of slime. Clouzot spent five weeks shooting at this location.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|p=20}}

The screenplay placed Nicole's house in Niort, but the actual house used for filming was in [[Montfort-l'Amaury]], just opposite the building that previously appeared in Clouzot's ''[[Le Corbeau]]''. The morgue scenes were shot in the Institut Médico-légal in Paris. The rest was filmed at Saint-Maurice Studios southeast of Paris which took  an additional nine weeks.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|p=20}}

The cinematographer, [[Armand Thirard]], used two camera crews to speed up the shooting that was falling behind schedule. Despite his efforts, the filming took twice longer than the projected 48 days.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|pp=20–21}}

Originally the film was to be called ''Les Veuves'' (''The Widows'') but this was deemed unmarketable. Eleven weeks into filming it was changed to ''Les Démoniaques''.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|p=13}} Eventually it was renamed ''Les Diaboliques'' but this title was already used for [[Les Diaboliques (short story collection)|a collection of short stories]] by the 19th-century writer [[Jules Barbey d'Aurevilly|Barbey d'Aurevilly]]. Clouzot was permitted to use this title but only on the condition that he give the author a proper mention.{{sfn|Hayward|2005|p=13}} He did it by opening the film with a quote from the preface to d'Aurevilly's work: "A portrait is always moral when it is tragic and shows the horror of the things it represents."<ref>{{Cite book|title=Framed: Lesbians, Feminists, and Media Culture|last=Mayne|first=Judith|year=2000|publisher=University of Minnesota Press|isbn=0816634564|location=Minneapolis|page=49|oclc=43555067}}</ref>