L'enfer (Torment) is a fascinating portrayal of husband's petty jealousy slowly turned into vicious madness and psychological dementia. Here we see Paul, played brilliantly by Francois Cluzet, seemingly happy individual running a lovely motel in a remote french locality. His wife, Nelly, whose role Emmanulle Beart capitalizes excellently, is a free-flowing woman who only loves his Paul more than anything.
The movie starts with flashbacks of their marriage and life in the motel shown quickly until we get into the present time, where Paul has a 5/6 year old boy. After few encounters that raises suspicion on Paul's mind , we see him slowly turn from a paranoid husband to a uncontrollable freak , who just thinks his wife is cheating on him even though after a various confrontations and denial from wife Nelly's part.
Initially director Claude Chabrol delicately plants a suspicion in viewer's mind about Nelly's infidelity. Is she really cheating him or not? We don't know it for sure until we reach the half of the movie. By the time we get ahold of Nelly's truth, Paul gets emerged deep into paranoia . Chabrol makes the growth of Paul gradual,rather rushing it which makes viewers sympathetic of him. But then we see the dark side of Paul's jealousy, his sickness in not being able to trust Nelly at all and seeing hallucinations. With a series of Montage , we see that Paul is not Ok. He's not in this reality , his mind constantly shifts from one reality to other whenever he sees Nelly. His jealousy turns into abuse and mental torture, which I should admit, was disturbing to watch.
The last half of the film was full of mental abuse which some viewer might find too much. Chabrol eleganty portrays the metaphor of abuse through the use of settings in a confined room. As the movie progresses, our characters become frequent in the confinement of hotel bedrooms. In the end, Chabrol doesn't give an explanation about the consequence of the characters. The viewers are given freedom to choose their own opinions on the ending. My personal take on the ending is this : Paul was in the normal reality when they are about to get ready for their trip to clinic, but just then his hallucinations kicks in, and out of sheer anger, he kills her. But after that his mind gets back to the reality where Nelly is asleep. Thus, Paul gets stuck in a loop . He may find his wife's body laying in the ground, but his mind will not be in that reality long enough to apprehend it. He is lost in abyss .There is no end.
The movie starts with flashbacks of their marriage and life in the motel shown quickly until we get into the present time, where Paul has a 5/6 year old boy. After few encounters that raises suspicion on Paul's mind , we see him slowly turn from a paranoid husband to a uncontrollable freak , who just thinks his wife is cheating on him even though after a various confrontations and denial from wife Nelly's part.
Initially director Claude Chabrol delicately plants a suspicion in viewer's mind about Nelly's infidelity. Is she really cheating him or not? We don't know it for sure until we reach the half of the movie. By the time we get ahold of Nelly's truth, Paul gets emerged deep into paranoia . Chabrol makes the growth of Paul gradual,rather rushing it which makes viewers sympathetic of him. But then we see the dark side of Paul's jealousy, his sickness in not being able to trust Nelly at all and seeing hallucinations. With a series of Montage , we see that Paul is not Ok. He's not in this reality , his mind constantly shifts from one reality to other whenever he sees Nelly. His jealousy turns into abuse and mental torture, which I should admit, was disturbing to watch.
The last half of the film was full of mental abuse which some viewer might find too much. Chabrol eleganty portrays the metaphor of abuse through the use of settings in a confined room. As the movie progresses, our characters become frequent in the confinement of hotel bedrooms. In the end, Chabrol doesn't give an explanation about the consequence of the characters. The viewers are given freedom to choose their own opinions on the ending. My personal take on the ending is this : Paul was in the normal reality when they are about to get ready for their trip to clinic, but just then his hallucinations kicks in, and out of sheer anger, he kills her. But after that his mind gets back to the reality where Nelly is asleep. Thus, Paul gets stuck in a loop . He may find his wife's body laying in the ground, but his mind will not be in that reality long enough to apprehend it. He is lost in abyss .There is no end.
