L’ENFER (HELL)

France, 2005, 104 minutes, Colour.
Emmanuel Beart, Karin Viard, Marie Ghislaine, Guillaume Canet, Jacques Gamblin, Jacques Perrin, Carole Buquet, Miki Manojlovic, Jean Rochefort, Maryam d'Abo.
Directed by Danis Tanovic.

After Tom Tykwer made Heaven with Cate Blanchett, many fans of Kieslowski were wondering whether the other two films in the trilogy of stories he left at his untimely death would be made. Kieslowski’s collaborator, Krzysztof Piesiewicz has collaborated with Oscar-winning director (No Man’s Land) in bringing Hell to the screen.

This is an impressive film. The focus is on three sisters who have been affected badly by the imprisonment and death of their father and the injuries to their mother and her life in an institution. (Originally, the background was given as the film opened but criticism that suspense was lacking led to crucial scenes about the father being left until much later in the film and, though the plot seems puzzling, this re-editing is much more effective.)

The three sisters have their own problems (and do not connect very much with each other). Celine (Karen Viard) is the unmarried one who dutifully visits her mother and meets a mysterious young man who she thinks is infatuated with her but who has the key to the rather devastating conclusion. Emmanuelle Beart is Sophie, dependent on her husband and who is shattered by his affair. Anne is the youngest, in love with a married professor, whose obsession leads to tragedy.

Tragedy is key. Anne sits for an exam and explains Euripides’ Medea, Medea’s betrayal by Jason and her unspeakable vengeance on him by killing their children. One suspects that Sophie is the Medea character here, but, while she could be, it is the sisters’ mother (Carole Bouquet) who is Medea who did not want to destroy her children – but did. The screenplay is also complex in its paralleling of the young man and Anne in their behaviour and its consequences except in the apportioning of guilt and innocence.

Kieslowski raised moral issues and dilemmas in his films and explored his own Decalogue. L’ Enfer is very much a Decalogue film.


1.Audience expectations of the film? The writing of Kieslowski? The background of the trilogy of The Colours? The trilogy of Heaven, Hell and Purgatory? The impact of the film Heaven? This film as Hell, No Exit?

2.Kieslowski’s insight into human nature, transcendent values? His bequest? This film as a 21st century interpretation of the theme of Hell? In ordinary life?

3.The background of the director, his Balkan perspective, working in France and in the French language? With French cast – but with a Balkans actor as the father? A European perspective?

4.Audience expectations of Hell, the use of the word, the theological understanding, the reality of Hell? People with their personal Hell? Social Hell? The need for the transcendent? A fable of the need for transcendence?

5.The contemporary French setting, the flashbacks to the past?

6.The prologue, the mother and daughter and the university, going to the father’s office, the scene, suggestive, compromise? The reaction of the mother? The reaction of the little girl? This scene being replayed later? The explanation? The misunderstandings on the part of the mother and daughter? The misinterpretation on the part of the audience? The blame on the father? His being innocent?

7.The presentation of the father and his getting out of prison – and not inserting the fullness of the action until later? His coming out of the prison, no-one to meet him, his kindness to people, the close-up of the chicken and the nest, his helping the bird? An indication of his true character? His visit home, the reaction of the family, the locked door, the mother, his violence and hitting her with the consequences of her going to the institution? The impact on the girls? His killing himself – and their looking at his body on the street?

8.Audiences understanding the repercussions of this sequence later? The mother, her injuries, the institution, the visits? The end and the three daughters visiting her, her continuing to blame her husband? Despite the fact of his innocence? Her saying she had no regrets? Locking herself in her own Hell?

9.The overtones of Euripides’ tragedy, Medea? The nature of tragedy? Anne and her studies of Greek literature? The exam and her explanation? The application of the Medea story to Sophie, the betrayal by her husband? Her relationship with her children? But its only being in audience imagination? The reality of their mother, the betrayal as she understood it of her husband, her being dead herself while alive, virtually killing her daughters? The impact on their emotional lives?

10.The portrait of Celine, in herself, going to visit her mother, the regular trips on the train, her being tied, the discussions with the conductor, his later giving her the sleeping pills? Her visits to her mother, her mother’s reaction, reading out the Guinness Book of Records? Her return home? The finale and her persuading her two sisters to go, the travelling, the conductor seeing the three together? Their explanation to their mother? Their failure to change her?

11.Celine and her job, Sebastian following her, her becoming nervous? Allowing him in? his hesitation? Her going to the bookshop, seeking him out? Discovering his sexual orientation? Her humiliation in inviting him in, expecting that he wanted sex with her? Her moral decision? Listening to his explanation about his actions, her father? Her response? Her decision to find her sisters and to tell them the truth?

12.Sophie, her age, experience, wife and mother? The scenes with her husband? Her suspicions, their being justified? Following him? The threat to the model? The effect on her? Expecting the worst? Confronting her husband, his lies? Her grief, her children? Audiences fearing that she might do something violent? The meaning of her life, her loneliness, her love? Celine finding her, persuading her to go to visit their mother?

13.Anne as the youngest daughter, her studies, in class with the professor, the revelation of the affair? The phone calls? His wanting to break up with her? Her visiting her friend, discovering that the professor was her friend’s father? The visit to the family, the father’s reaction, the wife’s reaction? His giving advice? The irony of the truth? His going to Athens, his death – accidental or suicide? Anne and her going to her exams, the discussions about Medea? Going back to see her friend, the friend’s grief, her realisation of the truth?

14.The parallels in relationships between the girl’s father and the young man, the misunderstandings? Anne and her relationship with the professor? Her father being innocent, the professor being guilty?

15.The glimpse of the professor’s family, his life and style, his daughter? His wife and the betrayal?

16.Sophie’s husband, his work as a photographer, the photo shoots, the model, the relationship? His going to the hotel with her? Sophie following them, the confrontation? His dishonesty? His leaving?

17.Sebastian, mysterious figure, his seeming to stalk Celine? His not being able to reveal the truth? Her going to the bookshop, the friend lying about him? His appearance? Celine and her misunderstanding and his response about the sexual invitation? His telling the truth, his own guilt, seduction, the professor’s reaction? His being to blame for what happened? His infatuation with the professor?

18.The detail of the portrait of each of the sisters? The portrait of the mother – seeing her in flashback, fully alive, her anger with her husband, the witnessing of the scene? His violence towards her? Her bitterness?

19.Kieslowski and Tanovic and the final message, people being trapped in their own Hells? The possibility of redemption and people escaping from Hell?