Le démoniaque (1968) - film review

Whilst American film producer Floyd Delaney does the rounds at the Cannes Film Festival, his adolescent son Jay keeps himself to himself, spending most of his time locked up in his hotel room.   Delaney’s wife Sophie becomes increasingly concerned over her stepson, and interprets his strange behaviour as a rejection of her.  In truth, Jay is mentally unstable and proves the fact by luring a young actress to his room and strangling her.  When Sophie discovers what has happened, Jay coerces her into helping him dispose of the body.  All is well until Sophie receives a telephone call from someone who claims to have some incriminating photographs of Jay...

There are overtones of Hitchcock’s Psycho in this self-consciously slick adaptation of a James Hadley Chase thriller, although François Gabriel isn’t quite Anthony Perkins and the direction lacks Hitchock’s subtlety and ingenuity.  The film is competently directed, the second feature from Hungarian born director René Gainville, but isn’t anywhere near as suspenseful or as thrilling as it could have been.  From the lackadaisical way in which the violence in the film is portrayed, you get the impression that Gainville is either embarrassed by what he is shooting or else chronically afraid of frightening the audience.

Making his film début, François Gabriel gives a convincing portrayal of a disturbed young man who goes on a killing spree for reasons that aren’t quite apparent.  Despite his obvious inexperience, Gabriel brings an intensity and poignancy to his performance that makes the character he plays both instantly likeable and utterly creepy. The main flaw of the film is that Jay’s motivation for murder is somewhat muddled – is it the result of some dark Oedipal impulse or a condition inherited from his mother, or is it just because he is disgusted by the phony showbiz world?  Surely if he was genuinely mad, he wouldn’t be so keen to cover his tracks?

Fortunately, the quality of the performances amply compensates for the shortcomings in the plot. Gabriel has charm, good looks and talent, so it is a surprise to learn that he only appeared in three other films.  By contrast, his co-star Anne Vernon was an established actress with a film career going back two decades before she made this, one of her last films.  Jess Hahn, the other lead actor, was also a prominent fixture of French cinema, appearing in around a hundred French films in a career spanning three decades.

© filmsdefrance.com 2009

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