The Wages of Fear (1953)

From French master filmmaker Henri-Georges Clouzot (often referred to as the 'French Hitchcock' and director of the mesmerising Les Diaboliques, 1955), this existential thriller and 1953 Cannes winner follows four truck drivers transporting dangerous payloads across South American terrain.

"The Southern Oil Company, which pretty much rules the roost in the impoverished village of Las Piedras, sends out a call for long-distance truck drivers. Southern Oil's wages of $2,000 per man are, literally, to die for - the drivers are obliged to transport highly volatile nitroglycerine shipments across some of the most treacherous terrain on earth. Through expository dialogue, tense interactions and flashbacks, we become intimately acquainted with the four drivers who sign up for this death-defying mission: Corsican Yves Montand, Italian Folco Lulli, German Peter Van Eyck, and Frenchman Charles Vanel. The first half of the film slowly, methodically introduces the characters and their motivations. The second half - the drive itself - is a relentless, goosebump-inducing assault on the audience's senses." (Hal Erickson, All Movie Guide)

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