The Wages of Fear

Featured image for “The Wages of Fear”
Shown: January 10, 2014 at 6pm

Director : Henri-Georges Clouzot

Country : France

Release Date : 1953

Duration : 132 mins

Language : French

Subtitles : Yes

WINNER : PALME D’OR (GRAND PRIX) AT 1953 CANNES FILM FESTIVAL

WINNER : GOLDEN BEAR AT 1953 BERLIN FILM FESTIVAL

The manager of a Central American oilfield offers big money to four lorry drivers who will take nitro-glycerine into the jungle to put out an oil-well fire. The incentive of money and the greed this causes creates results which are as black a vision of human infidelity as is possible to imagine.  Cliff-edge tension wracks the nerves but never obscures the fact that the men in contest with each other will crack up and die in a series of craftily managed shocking bad moments.

It has some claim to be the greatest suspense thriller of all time: it is the suspense not of mystery but of Damocles’ sword.”  (Basil Wright)


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