This film is about jealousy. This is a complex subject for study, because of the forces that drive and escalate sexual jealousy are many and varied: power, guilt, feeling of inadequacy/ impotence, race, class, existential loneliness, so on and so on.
But Chabryol's L'Enfer is very narrow in range: he is only interested in the symptoms of jealousy, and the intensity of the madness. We are not to understand the thoughts and emotions behind the husband's rapidly building suspicion, and as a consequence, we see no psychological depth in the two leading characters, in their respective contributions, and then the responses, to the tragedy. Compare this to, among many fine examples, Godard's "Contempt", or von Steinem's "Blue Angel", the current film pales in virtuosity.
But what intensity, and what pain! In spite of the narrow focus, the effect on the viewer is dramatic, which goes to tes…
