Legendary French filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot, director of the masterful thrillers, Diabolique and Wages of Fear, began work on what may have been his masterpiece, 1964's Inferno. But due to a number of a circumstances including conflicts with his actors, a nearly unlimited budget, and self-sabotage on Clouzot's part, the film collapsed only 3 weeks into production.
Now, after almost 50 years, a documentary has been produced that weaves the previously shot footage with interviews with those involved with the production. Henri-Georges Clouzot's Inferno will screen at New York City's IFC Center for a limited time.
From the IFC Center website:
Recently unearthed, the surviving footage proves even more breathtaking than expected; now fleshed out with rediscovered storyboards, photographs and production records, plus interviews with crew members (including Costa-Gavras), the tests and rushes reveal the outlines of a lost treasure.
For screening dates and times, check out the IFC Center website.
This is truly essential viewing for anyone that is a Clouzot fan. This played at the Melbourne Film Festival last year, and it blew me away. The footage shot for this unfinished film was amazing. The only thing that I felt was strange was the fact that the filmmakers of the documentary never mention Claude Chabrol's version of "L'Enfer" at all. However, this is HIGHLY recommended!!!!!
This played in this year's Rotterdam festival (IFFR) as well, and got a quite respectable audience rating of 3,9 out of 5. It got very good word of mouth from friends of mine...