HENRI-GEORGES CLOUZOT

Henri-Georges Clouzot was a legendary French suspense film director mostly from the 1940s to 1960s. He had mostly been a screenwriter since 1931, directing just three movies during that time. In 1942, he directed "L'assassin habite... au 21", which launched his full time directing career. With this movie, he was very consciously imitating Alfred Hitchcock, adding comedy to his suspense, and it was not altogether successful, and after this movie, he never repeated that effort, making some of the most suspenseful movies ever, including "The Wages of Fear" and "Les Diaboliques" (and Alfred Hitchcock was very much his rival in making suspense movies during those years, and narrowly lost buying the rights to "Les Diaboliques" when Clouzot bought them just hours ahead of him!). Clouzot passed away in 1977 at the age of 69.