Film Forum

France, 1953
Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
Based on the novel La Salaire de la peur by George Arnaud
Starring Yves Montand, Charles Vanel, Peter van Eyck
Cinematography by Armand Thirard
Approx. 153 min. DCP.

Stuck in of a nameless, end-of-the-road Central American oil town, down-and-out Frenchmen Yves Montand and Charles Vanel, Italian Folco Lulli, and German Peter van Eyck yearn for a ticket out in-between barroom brawls and dallying with echt-vulnerable Vera Clouzot (wife of the director) — Wait! There is a way out! Only trouble is, they have to transport two heavy trucks packed with nitroglycerin up switch-backed mountain roads to blow out an oil rig fire at a U.S.-owned drilling site — and then that guy wire snaps... But then the thrills — the pillar of smoke over the horizon, the oil slick obstacle courtesy of a gushing broken pipe — just keep on coming in Clouzot's existential, nerve shredding suspense melodrama, with its ultimate talisman, that cherished Paris Metro ticket. Legendary chanteur Montand, a committed left-winger, originally balked at working with Clouzot, an accused wartime collaborator, but this role established him as a serious actor, while Vanel won Cannes' Best Actor award, with THE WAGES OF FEAR also taking its Best Film prize, establishing Clouzot as France's answer to Hitchcock.

A TF1 presentation, in association with the Cinémathèque Française. Restored by Hiventy.

Presented with support from the George Fasel Memorial Fund for Classic French Cinema and the Ada Katz Fund for Literature in Film

A JANUS FILMS RELEASE

Trailer

Reviews

“YOU SIT THERE WAITING FOR THE THEATER TO EXPLODE!”
– The New York Times

“A masterpiece of suspense.” 
– Christopher Nolan

“More than a spectacular roller coaster ride... No other show in town can match WAGES for the purely gut sensations it prompts, the kind that make you laugh out loud as the heart threatens to go on permanent hold.”
– Vincent Canby, The New York Times

“As black a vision of human infidelity as any since Othello... A vision of men as scurrying insects with no redeeming, features.”
– Chris Peachment, Time Out
 
“The extended suspense sequences deserve a place among the great stretches of cinema… The cinematographer, Armand Thirard, pins each team of men into its claustrophobic truck cab. Where very jolt and bump in the road causes them to wince, waiting for a death that, if it comes, will happen so suddenly they will never know it… The last scene is a reminder of how much Hollywood has traded away by insisting on the childishness of of the obligatory happy end. See it on the big screen if you possibly can.”
– Roger Ebert

 “This grueling pile driver of a movie will keep you on the edge of your seat.” 
– Jonathan Rosenbaum, Chicago Reader