Recommended reading – Vertigo (novel & book of the movie):

D’entre les morts

translation: From Among the Dead

By Boileau-Narcejac (Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac).

Filmed as Vertigo (1958), directed by Alfred Hitchcock.

Published by Pushkin Vertigo.

First published 1954.

ISBN-10: 1782279741

ISBN-13: 978-1782279747

Description:

In World War II-era Paris, a troubled-ex policeman is entangled in a web of deceit and lies when he investigates a woman’s strange behavior.

Flavières doesn’t really want to investigate his old’s friend’s wife, but he doesn’t feel he has much of a choice. Madeleine has been behaving strangely, and her husband wants answers – answers that she isn’t willing to give him.

As WWII rages around him, Flavières is drawn into an obsessive cat-and-mouse chase across Paris. Soon his intrigue is replaced by obsession and his dreams by nightmares, as he edges towards discovering a dark, terrible secret.

The most celebrated collaboration of a ground-breaking crime-writing duo, Vertigo is the timeless story of morality and revenge, and the inspiration for Hitchcock’s iconic film.

Vertigo

By Charles Barr.

Published by British Film Institute.

Published 2012.

2nd edition.

ISBN-10: 1844574989

ISBN-13: 9781844574988

Description:

Vertigo (1958) is widely regarded as not only one of Hitchcock's best films, but one of the greatest films of world cinema. Made at the time when the old studio system was breaking up, it functions both as an embodiment of the supremely seductive visual pleasures that 'classical Hollywood' could offer and – with the help of an elaborate plot twist – as a laying bare of their dangerous dark side. The film's core is a study in romantic obsession, as James Stewart's Scottie pursues Madeleine/Judy (Kim Novak) to her death in a remote Californian mission. Novak is ice cool but vulnerable, Stewart – in the darkest role of his career – genial on the surface but damaged within.

Although it can be seen as Hitchcock's most personal film, Charles Barr argues that, like Citizen Kane, Vertigo is at the same time a triumph not so much of individual authorship as of creative collaboration. He highlights the crucial role of screenwriters Alec Coppel and Samuel Taylor and, by a combination of textual and contextual analysis, explores the reasons why Vertigo continues to inspire such fascination.

In his foreword to this special edition, published to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the BFI Film Classics series, Barr looks afresh at Vertigo alongside the recently-rediscovered 'lost' silent The White Shadow (1924), scripted by Hitchcock, which also features the trope of the double, and at the acclaimed contemporary silent film The Artist (2011), which pays explicit homage to Vertigo in its soundtrack.

On this day in movie history - Diabolique (1996 movie & novel):

Diabolique

directed by Jeremiah Chechik,

written by Don Roos,

based on the original screenplay by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jérôme Géronimi, René Masson and Frédéric Grendel,

in turn based on the novel She Who Was No More by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac,

was released in the United States on March 22, 1996.
Music by Randy Edelman.

Cast:

Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri, Kathy Bates, Spalding Gray, Shirley Knight, Allen Garfield, Adam Hann-Byrd, Donal Logue, Diana Bellamy, Clea Lewis, J.J. Abrams, O'Neal Compton, Bingo O'Malley, Stephen Liska, James Kisicki, Kevin Vinay, Cory Pattak, Kate Young, Sophia Salguero, Hank Stohl, Zachary Mott, Jesse Sky Ross, Tony Amen, Daniel Conley, Aaron D. Frankel, Daniel Kremer, Phil Nardozzi, Steve Patterson.

Recommended reading:

She Who Was No More

By Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.

Filmed as Les Diaboliques, a.k.a. Diabolique, The Devils, The Fiends (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

ASIN: B00TNBPJ9O

Published by Pushkin Vertigo.

English language translation edition 2015.

Published 2015.

First published 1951.

Description:

Every Saturday evening, travelling salesman Ferdinand Ravinel returns to his wife, Mireille, who waits patiently for him at home. But Ferdinand has another lover, Lucienne – an ambitious doctor – and together the adulterers have devised a murderous plan.

Drugging Mireille, the pair drown her in a bathtub. But before the "accidental" death can be discovered, the corpse mysteriously disappears. So begins the unraveling of Ferdinand's plot, and his sanity.

This classic of French noir fiction was adapted for the screen by Henri-Georges Clouzot as Les Diaboliques (The Devils; The Fiends), starring Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot, the film which in turn inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. A second movie version, Diabolique, followed in 1996, starring Sharon Stone.

On this day in movie history - Les Diaboliques (1955 movie & novel):

Les Diaboliques

aka Diabolique, The Devils, The Fiends,

directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot,

written by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Jérôme Géronimi, René Masson and Frédéric Grendel,

based on the novel She Who Was No More by Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac,

was released in France on January 29, 1955.
Music by Georges Van Parys.

Cast:

Simone Signoret, Véra Clouzot, Paul Meurisse, Charles Vanel, Jean Brochard, Thérèse Dorny, Michel Serrault, Georges Chamarat, Robert Dalban, Camille Guérini, Jacques Hilling, Jean Lefebvre, Aminda Montserrat, Jean Témerson, Jacques Varennes, Georges Poujouly, Yves-Marie Maurin, Noël Roquevert, Pierre Larquey, Jean-Pierre Bonnefous, Christian Brocard, Jean Clarieux, Henri Coutet, Michel Dumur, Johnny Hallyday, Henri Humbert, Zappy Max, Roberto Rodrigo, Madeleine Suffel, Jimmy Urbain.

Recommended reading:

She Who Was No More

By Pierre Boileau and Thomas Narcejac.

Filmed as Les Diaboliques, a.k.a. Diabolique, The Devils, The Fiends (1955), directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot.

ASIN: B00TNBPJ9O

Published by Pushkin Vertigo.

English language translation edition 2015.

Published 2015.

First published 1951.

Description:

Every Saturday evening, travelling salesman Ferdinand Ravinel returns to his wife, Mireille, who waits patiently for him at home. But Ferdinand has another lover, Lucienne – an ambitious doctor – and together the adulterers have devised a murderous plan.

Drugging Mireille, the pair drown her in a bathtub. But before the "accidental" death can be discovered, the corpse mysteriously disappears. So begins the unraveling of Ferdinand's plot, and his sanity.

This classic of French noir fiction was adapted for the screen by Henri-Georges Clouzot as Les Diaboliques (The Devils; The Fiends), starring Simone Signoret and Véra Clouzot, the film which in turn inspired Alfred Hitchcock's Psycho. A second movie version, Diabolique, followed in 1996, starring Sharon Stone.