Corrie Film Club
On Sunday, November 13th, Corrie Film Club shows one of the all-time greatest nail-biting thrillers ever, the 1953 Henri-Georges Clouzot production called Le Salaire de la Peur – The Wages of Fear. It stars Yves Montand, at that time a popular singer, as one of four down-and-out men hired to drive two trucks over mountain dirt roads, carrying the nitroglycerine needed to extinguish the fire that is raging in a South American oil well. It brought Clouzot international fame, and has resonance to this day in its wry look at noncitizens without proper paperwork for work or travel. These drivers will do anything for a chance to make some money and break the deadlock that holds them as serfs to the American corporation that dominates the town. In fact, the film was so critical of the American oil company SOC that it was accused of anti-Americanism and several scenes were cut for the U.S. release.
The men, two of them French, one Dutch and one Italian, have taken on a job so dangerous that none of the unionised SOC employees will touch it. A raging fire at one of the SOC oil fields has defeated all efforts to extinguish it, and the only remaining option is to blow it out with a vast explosion. Nitroglycerine will do the trick – but it is notoriously unstable, specially if moved about in any way where air is present. It should be carried in sealed containers, but in this emergency, the only way to carry it is in jerrycans placed in two large trucks. For £2,000 US dollars, the men recruited from the community will risk it.
There’s never any certainty about how things will end. Even those who saw it years ago will find themselves re-living the sweaty tension of what happens, and to the very last frame, it’s all guesswork. The New York Times wrote, ‘You sit there waiting for the theatre to explode’, and as recently as 1992, Roger Ebert stated that ‘The film’s extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema.’ In 2010, the film was ranked 9th in The 100 Best Films of World Cinema.
The screening starts at 8.00pm in Corrie Hall. There is no charge for admission and non-Film Club members are welcome. A contribution to hall expenses would be welcome but is in no way obligatory.
