Abstract
Adapted from Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac’s novel Celle qui n’était plus (She who was no more), which had as its original premise the decision of two women lovers to do away with the married woman’s husband so they could make off with his life insurance and live happily ever after, Henri Clouzot’s film version, renamed Les Diaboliques, paints an even darker picture of the venality of humankind. The original novel upon which this film was based was, therefore, a lesbian text.
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Works cited
Hayward, S. (2004), Simone Signoret: The Star as Cultural Sign, New York and London: Continuum.
Hayward, S. (2005), Les Diaboliques, London: I.B. Tauris.
Krutnik, F. (1991), In a Lonely Street: Film Noir, Genre, Masculinity, London and New York: Routledge.
Vincendeau, G. (2007), ‘French Film Noir’, in A. Spicer (ed.), European Film Noir, Manchester: Manchester University Press, pp. 23–54.
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© 2010 Susan Haywar
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Hayward, S. (2010). Diabolically Clever — Clouzot’s French Noir Les Diaboliques (1954). In: Hanson, H., O’Rawe, C. (eds) The Femme Fatale: Images, Histories, Contexts. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230282018_7
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230282018_7
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
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