Hell

Released Nov 26, 1994

1h 45m

Drama

List

100%

Tomatometer

11 Reviews

74%

Audience Score

1,000+ Ratings

The high-spirited Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) is happy in her marriage, but her husband, Paul (François Cluzet), can't get beyond his desire to buy out and take control of the beach hotel where he has long been employed. After years of saving, he finally purchases ownership of the establishment, only to realize that he barely has enough money to keep it running. As the debts pile up, he becomes reliant on alcohol, makes irrational claims about Nelly's fidelity and slowly loses his mind.

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Budd Wilkins

Slant Magazine

Arrows Lies and Deceit box set offers five of Claude Chabrols finest efforts from the 1980s and 1990s in a handsome new package with hours of bonus materials.

Mar 2, 2022

Full Review

Roger Ebert

Chicago Sun-Times

The key figure in L'Enfer is Nelly, the wife. Paul is almost a hopeless case even from the first frames, sliding beyond jealousy into insanity. But what about her? Surely she knows how sick her husband is?

Rated: 3/4

Jan 1, 2000

Full Review

Matt Brunson

Film Frenzy

Rarely has the ugly specter of jealousy been presented in such a harsh manner.

Rated: 3/4

Mar 5, 2022

Full Review

Sean Axmaker

Seanax.com

[Claude] Chabrol injects [Henri-George] Clouzot's dark, misanthropic tale with a soupon of Hitchcock's voyeuristic obsessions and with his own empathy for the tormented husband.

Mar 10, 2017

Full Review

Christopher Null

Filmcritic.com

Rated: 4.5/5

Apr 6, 2006

Full Review

Michael Szymanski

International Press Academy

Rated: 3/5

Oct 7, 2005

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Tic Toc M

I often think of how "Eyes Wide Shut" - a film I don't like - was promoted as being about "sexual obsession and jealousy". "Eyes Wide Shut" WISHES it was this movie (french title: L'Enfer, English title: Hell, American title: Torment) (confusingly, this is one of two films entitled "L'Enfer" that stars Emmanuele Beart). This is MASTERFULLY directed by Chabrol, and impeccably acted, especially by Beart. Francois Cluzet plays her super jealous husband to absolute madness. Sexual obsession and jealousy, that's what this movie is about. It reminds me of a great Italian comedy with Claudia Cardinale that is hard to find, "The Magnificent Cuckold" (1964). This is no comedy though, but it's a little like a Hitchcockian version of that movie. My favorite Chabrol movie is "Les Biches" and after that probably "The Butcher"....this one would come after those two. It might even be number two, not sure. As soon as it was over, I was so taken with Emmanuelle Beart I watched "La Belle Noiseuse", a four-hour Rivette film that I liked, but I prefer "L'Enfer".

Rated 4 out of 5 stars

05/22/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Claude Chabrol made this film from a screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot, who never finished his version of the film when he started making it back in 1964. Paul (François Cluzet) and Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) have a relationship that falls apart due to his jealousy. L'Enfer means the "inferno of Hell" and that's what they both go through, all because Paul assumes that his wife is sleeping with anyone and everyone. But is she just doing these things to drive him mad? Or is she the living embodiment of a Tex Avery cartoon, the kind of woman that men can't control themselves around, and perhaps most frightening to men, one that knows it and uses it? I'd say that at the least, I would not want to stay at the hotel that Paul is allowing to spiral madly out of control. That said, every man wants to marry a supermodel but is not ready for what work that entails. When everyone wants what you have — and you know it — and you're as despicable a person as Paul is, there's no way that your life can ever go well.

Rated 3 out of 5 stars

02/06/23

Full Review

david f

This study of marital jealousy is kind of bonkers but I do think it has a few insights and careful observations on the topic of the green eyed monster.

Rated 2 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Descent into jealous madness is never made clear which adds to the terror of imagination and reality for a man spiraling into mental and emotional purgatory; Beart is an ideal manifestation of the object of affection

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

01/30/23

Full Review

Audience Member

Super good actors, very good story and flow. End totally unexpected for me.

Rated 4.5 out of 5 stars

02/04/23

Full Review

andrey k

The film is structured as a series of fits of jealousy of the husband which slowly but assuredly affect the life of the married couple. The young and beautiful wife in the course of progression of the illness of her husband becomes a pale shadow of herself. It's a frightening examination.

Rated 3.5 out of 5 stars

03/31/23

Full Review

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Claude Chabrol

Director

Emmanuelle Béart

Nelly

François Cluzet

Paul Prieur

Marc Lavoine

Martineau

Nathalie Cardone

Marylin

André Wilms

Doctor Arnoux

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Synopsis

The high-spirited Nelly (Emmanuelle Béart) is happy in her marriage, but her husband, Paul (François Cluzet), can't get beyond his desire to buy out and take control of the beach hotel where he has long been employed. After years of saving, he finally purchases ownership of the establishment, only to realize that he barely has enough money to keep it running. As the debts pile up, he becomes reliant on alcohol, makes irrational claims about Nelly's fidelity and slowly loses his mind.

Director: Claude Chabrol
Screenwriter: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Genre: Drama
Original Language: French (Canada)
Release Date (Theaters): Nov 26, 1994, Original
Release Date (Streaming): Mar 6, 2017
Runtime: 1h 45m
Sound Mix: Surround

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