DIABOLIQUE
A film review by Michael John Legeros
Copyright 1996 Michael John Legeros
(WB)
Directed by Jeremiah Chechik
Written by Don Roos
Cast Sharon Stone, Isabelle Adjani, Chazz Palminteri, Kathy
Bates
MPAA Rating "R" (presumably for language, violence, nudity, etc.)
Running Time 107 minutes
Reviewed at General Cinemas at Pleasant Valley, Raleigh, NC
(24MAR96)
==
Woof! DIABOLIQUE reminds me of those activity-book pages that I used to love-- the ones titled "what's wrong with this picture?" So many problems surface in this failed French-film remake that it's difficult to know where to start! The tone is the worst-- an overly oppressive mood that lands with an almost-audible thud. The characters then play too close to camp, which is probably the best way to take this tabloid- worthy tale of a wife (Isabelle Adjani) and a mistress (Sharon Stone) who conspire to kill their husband/ lover (Chazz Palminteri). Try this for dialogue: "If it's all the same to you, I'd rather not hang for fried chicken." No, not as good-bad as SHOWGIRLS, but close. Very close. The defining moment comes at the end, when Stone and Adjani are finishing some business in the shallow end of a swimming pool. Cut to an underwater shot of their struggle and both actresses are still wearing heels. Ouch.
Grade: D+
--
Mike Legeros - Raleigh, NC
legeros@nando.net (h) - legeros@unx.sas.com (w)
MOVIE HELL is on the Web!
The review above was posted to the
rec.arts.movies.reviews newsgroup (de.rec.film.kritiken for German reviews).
The Internet Movie Database accepts no responsibility for the contents of the
review and has no editorial control. Unless stated otherwise, the copyright
belongs to the author.
Please direct comments/criticisms of the review to relevant newsgroups.
Broken URLs inthe reviews are the responsibility of the author.
The formatting of the review is likely to differ from the original due
to ASCII to HTML conversion.
Related links: index of all rec.arts.movies.reviews reviews