we are used to watching movies that have been “made”.. what about the many and many movies that die at any stage of production, from inception and conception to shooting etc..? how many missed masterpieces are there out there that we will never know about? for once we have an opportunity to answer this question with this incredible docu-film on the making of and failing to make what could have been a major milestone of french cinema and also a very revolutionary movie.

it all starts in a lift where during a blackout 2 persons get accidentally stuck: Sergie Bromberg, a film restoration specialist, and the window of George Cluzot.

The start talking and end up talking about L’Enfer, an unfinished movie by Cluzot who suffered a stroke during the shooting and later died and the existence of a number of cans of film that is all that is left of that project.

From this blackout and this accidental circumstance was born this docu-film which is a study of what L’enfer could have been, had Clouzot’s lived to see if finished.

This movie was supposed to be revolutionary under every possible aspect, and in the movie shot prove of this are the experiments by the director both with images and sounds. Without digital technology, Clouzot and his staff had to work out very clever way of creating some special effects that even to this have an unusual dignity.

To invert the color of a scene, actors bodies are painted; tests are executed with color palettes held by actors or standbys, scene are shot with standbys to make them perfect.

Sound is researched to try to reproduce or hint the mental states of the characters, especially for states altered by jealousy, paranoia, sleep etc.

This docu-film covers all possible aspects, using the film shot, but also interviewing people who worked at the movie and are still alive. It’s the work of love by a someone who is a great fan of Clouzot’s work but also has great ability to put together all elements and give them a unity and make them come alive after many years of being (luckily for us) set aside to get dust.