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"Diabolique" (1996) and "Les Diaboliques" (1955)
Diabolique is the Sharon Stone remake of a classic Clouzot tale of suspense. The 1955 release ended with a famous admonition not to reveal the surprise ending to anyone.
Now don't read on if you want to see the original (believe me, you don't want to see the remake), because I'm going to spoil it for you. Skip to the pictures.
Rumor has it that Hitchcock called to get the rights to this novel only 30 minutes after Clouzot had obtained them. Clouzot and Hitchcock were rivals, contemporaries, virtual equals, and profound influences upon one another. It was excellent source material, and the original is filled with taut suspense, although it is ruined by one-dimensional characterizations.
The basic summary is this: a wife plots with her husband's mistress to kill the abusive bastard. They drown him in a bathtub, then toss him into a scummy swimming pool. When the pool is drained, the body is missing, and all sorts of strange clues about him start turning up. Are the two women being set up by a blackmailer who saw what they did? Or is there something else? There are hints that he is still alive.
OK, here's the surprise ending - the spoiler you don't want to read if you plan to watch the original. The wife has a severe heart condition. Turns out that the husband - in collusion with the mistress - faked his death and came "back to life" in her bathtub, where the sight of him scared her to death. Unfortunately for the murderers, a nosy Columbo-like detective figured it all out and sent them to the Bastille or something.
The remake kept the unbelievable characters, but didn't bother to retain much suspense, and dragged the movie on past the original surprise ending.
Turns out the wife doesn't die from the sight of him, she recovers, forgives the mistress, and the two women finally do kill the bastard. In a very silly scene, the mistress hits the husband with a garden rake. And then they drown him in a swimming pool by co-operating to hold him down. Sharon Stone is seen underwater, holding down the husband while she stands in the pool in her high heels. I'm not kidding.
A female detective (sex change from the original) sees the entire thing, but she decides to look the other way because the husband was a slimeball. In fact, she even becomes an accomplice in covering up the crime.
Why remake the classics? The Scoopy theory is to remake only above-average movies, never poor ones or classics. With a good-not-great movie, you may have the raw material to turn something up to a higher level. (The Thomas Crown affair is a pretty good example.)
But not the classics. I like Sean Penn, but I just don't see any need for his version of Casablanca.
Anyway, the 1996 remake was a lame movie. The photography is blurry, some scenes are totally unrealistic in a modern context, all three main characters are one-dimensional and unbelievable, and the editing is choppy. And, as Tuna has pointed out in his review, even though she is breathtakingly beautiful, if you could go through the screen you'd kill Isabelle Adjani yourself for her whining and constant eye-widening. What more is there to say?
The box office was $17 million domestic ($35 million foreign) on a $30 million dollar budget.
The production was rife with problems. First Clouzot's widow sued the production company, saying that they didn't acquire the rights..
Then Stone was said to be a pain from the beginning to the end of production. She brought her own wardrobe person, ordered a ton of clothes on the film's ticket, and refused to do a nude scene that was specifically stipulated in her contract. All this for her paltry $6 million dollar fee. And then she said publicly that she was ashamed that the production company was trying to cheat Clouzot's widow! The director said, "Sharon is great in the movie, (but) ... doesn't have a clue as to what she is talking about. She is not an easy actress to work with."
Well, I suppose he was right about some of that. Not everybody saw her acting as a threat to the memory of Jessica Tandy. The Razzie Awards gave her their "worst new star" award for the "new, serious Sharon". But I suppose she probably did OK. The portrayal was cartoonish, but I think it's difficult to split out the blame between her and the screenwriter. Personally, I don't think she had a realistic character to work with, and Streep couldn't have done much more.
Too bad about Stone's non-existent nude scene, but Adjani looked especially good. She was 41 when she made this, but she could easily have passed for a woman in her late 20's, and the facial close ups don't betray her at all. Of course, they're so blurry, how could they?
Adjani
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The 1955 Version
IMDB summary: 8.4 out of 10.
DVD info from Amazon
Apollo rating: 85 out of 100
Apollo users rating: 88 out of 100.
1996 Version
IMDB summary: 5.0 out of 10.
DVD info from Amazon
Apollo rating: 46 out of 100
Apollo users rating: 63 out of 100.
| Emmy Highlights
| | Mr and Mrs. Pitt |
All of the usual red carpet stuff. Basically a bunch of cleavage from various celebs.
| | Camryn Manheim |
An actress I never thought would make an appearance in the Fun House.
| | Jenna Elfman |
| | Allison Janney |
Accepting one off the 432 Emmys for "The West Wing". (Well, one of nine anyway, setting a new record.)
| | Heather Locklear |
More cleavage
| Geena Davis
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Is this from the Emmys? Or People magazine's worst dressed list?
| | Oz
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Marlee Matlin
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Comments By Oz:
On Sunday Tuna brought up the subject of Marlee's body double. I have put together just one collage of Marlee. As you can see a body double was used in some of the scenes. Why? especially as she was topless at least once. I don't know. Maybe the director thought her breasts were a bit flabby - at least they weren't full of silicone.
| Juliette Binoche
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Comments By Oz:
Another probable body double is Juliette Binoche in The Horseman on the Roof (Le Hussard sur le toit). Graphic Response did a collage of Juliette in this movie last year. However, nowhere in the movie do you see Juliette's face and nude body together. In fact, in the second and third collages you see the full body shot but the head is deliberately turned away. Why they'd use a body double is again a mystery. Juliette has done quite a few nude scenes.
The movie is set early last century and Juliette is attempting to escape to France, fleeing the Austrians trying to capture her. On the journey she contacts cholera. The capped scene shows the way in which she was cured - by rubbing her body all over with alcohol. Well, it worked in the movie.
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Lenore Kasdorf
Bangkok Bar Babes
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Comments By Oz:
We might as well continue the body double theme with Lenore Kasdorf in Missing in Action, mainly because I have the caps. The film stars Chuck Norris so you already have some idea of the plot, the start, middle, and the finish. It's only for the fans.
The actual nudity be Lenore is very fleeting and set in a darkened room. However, when this scene is viewed you can't see the face and body at the same time.
I've also added a couple of scenes from girlie bars. Girlie bar scenes are one of those 'must haves' when a film is set in Bangkok.
| Laure Raoust
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Comments By Oz:
The final collage comes from another French film "Where the heart is" (Ŕ la place du coeur). Laure Raoust has a black man as a lover and you see the first time they made love. Fiona Kendrian plays the same character as Laure but during a flash back to her childhood.
| | Brainscan
| Florence Guerin
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Comments by Brainscan:
And a rousing cheer goes up from these quarters for UC99 and his caps of Black Venus. If'n I had the equipment, the skill and the movie it would have been first thing I would have capped...no need now. What a cast: Monique twenty years and thirty pounds ago, JJ Jones with legs up to her ears and a Miss Bahamas title to her name, and Florence Guerin. A real cutie that Florence, who did a bit more work in front of the moving camera and a lot more in front of the still camera. Wanna see? I have chosen the hest I could find.
| | UC99
| Isabelle Adjani
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From "L' Été meurtrier" (One Deadly Summer). Aside from the super hip, early 80's fashions, I think the next best find from this movie must be the Full frontal nudity in #3.
| | Josephine Jacqueline Jones |
A follow up from yesterday...additional full frontal nudity from "Black Venus".
| | Florence Guerin |
Full frontal nudity from "Black Venus".
| | Karin Schubert |
More full frontal nudity from "Black Venus".
| | Unique 1
| Marianne Morris
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Misc. Lesbo Vampyres
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Anulka
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The movie..."Vampyres" aka "Blood Hunger" aka "Daughters of Dracula" aka "Satan's Daughters" aka "Vampyres, Daughters of Dracula".
Basically, a couple of hot babes roam a cool castle, have a lot of sex and drink a lot of blood....Meanwhile their voices are overdubbed so their "acting" doesn't get in the way if the much more important nudity. Tuna covered this puppy on 5/16 and Johnny Web hit it again on 5/28. But seriously, is there such a thing as too much coverage of naked lesbian vampires?...I don't think so.
| | and ...
| Charlotte Ross
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If you haven't seen "Beggars and Choosers" on Showtime, you really are missing a great TV show. Since I've had the had the "opportunity" (I won't call it a pleasure) of spending a little time on the periphery of the Hollywood scene during the past year, I can tell you this...They nailed it! Life in the entertainment industry really is this nutty! Granted, I was working in the Adult side of things, but I still swam with some of the same sharks.
The best thing about the show is that they obviously have a great time poking fun at Hollywood. Sadly, like everything else in LA, people here have a really hard time believing that life exists outside of Los Angeles (unless of course you are talking about New York City), so I imagine that a lot of folks miss the humor of the show. Still...highly recommended viewing.
| Catherine Bell
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Two great scans from the new FHM, by Madusalla.
| | Liz Hurley |
Liz playing with snakes again! This time we have Liz in a red hot bikini promoting her upcoming movie "Bedazzled". Thanks to Cougar Scans.
| | Kirsten Dunst |
Here is the very popular young actress celebrating the good ol' US of A in convenient bikini form.
| | The Funnies
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