''Death Rite'' (french: Les Magiciens) is a 1976

psychological thriller film Psychological thriller is a genre combining the thriller and psychological fiction genres. It is commonly used to describe literature or films that deal with psychological narratives in a thriller or thrilling setting. In terms of context and co ...

co-written and directed by

Claude Chabrol Claude Henri Jean Chabrol (; 24 June 1930 – 12 September 2010) was a French film director and a member of the French New Wave (''nouvelle vague'') group of filmmakers who first came to prominence at the end of the 1950s. Like his colleagues an ...

, and based on the novel ''Initiation au meurtre'' by

Frédéric Dard Frédéric Dard (Frédéric Charles Antoine Dard; 29 June 1921, in Bourgoin-Jallieu, Isère, France – 6 June 2000, in Bonnefontaine, Fribourg, Switzerland) was a French crime writer. He wrote more than three hundred novels, plays and screenplays ...

Plot

At a luxury hotel in

Djerba Djerba (; ar, جربة, Jirba, ; it, Meninge, Girba), also transliterated as Jerba or Jarbah, is a Tunisian island and the largest island of North Africa at , in the Gulf of Gabès, off the coast of Tunisia. It had a population of 139,544 a ...

Tunisia ) , image_map = Tunisia location (orthographic projection).svg , map_caption = Location of Tunisia in northern Africa , image_map2 = , capital = Tunis , largest_city = capital , ...

psychic A psychic is a person who claims to use extrasensory perception (ESP) to identify information hidden from the normal senses, particularly involving telepathy or clairvoyance, or who performs acts that are apparently inexplicable by natural laws, ...

magician Magician or The Magician may refer to: Performers * A practitioner of magic (supernatural) * A practitioner of magic (illusion) * Magician (fantasy), a character in a fictional fantasy context Entertainment Books * ''The Magician'', an 18th-ce ...

Vestar (Fröbe) meets the dark Edouard (Rochefort). Heading to the hotel, Vestar has a vision of a woman being murdered in the desert. Edouard, a member of the leisure class, decides to use his influence to make the dream become a reality. Also staying at the resort are Sadry, returning (Nero) who has come home to visit his dying mother, and his annoying wife Sylvia (Sandrelli). Also there is Martine (von Weitershausen), an ex-lover of Sadry who would like to get back together with him. The marriage is further strained when Sylvia finds the two of them together. It appears that the prophesied murder has something to do with Sylvia. Specific details from Vestar's prediction about her death are used by Edouard to make it happen, although in fact his interference alters the results. Sadry comes to terms with her tensions and anger as events build toward the inevitable.

Principal cast

Reception

The film was a commercial failure, with only 51,682 tickets sold in France.

References

External links

* * * 1970s psychological drama films 1970s psychological thriller films 1976 films Adultery in films Films about magic and magicians Films directed by Claude Chabrol Films set in Tunisia Films shot in France Films shot in Tunisia French drama films French psychological thriller films Italian drama films West German films Films with screenplays by Paul Gégauff Films based on French novels 1976 drama films 1970s French-language films 1970s French films 1970s Italian films {{1970s-France-film-stub