[2] Despite an unlimited budget from Columbia Pictures—Clouzot worked with three crews and 150 technicians—the shooting was beset by severe problems: everyone suffered from the record heat during July in the Cantal region; the main actor Serge Reggiani claimed to be ill (Jean-Louis Trintignant was asked to replace him); the artificial lake below the Garabit viaduct, an important part of the location, was about to be emptied by the local authorities; then Clouzot suffered a heart attack and was hospitalised in Saint-Flour.
In 2009, Serge Bromberg and Ruxandra Medrea released a 94-minute documentary with material selected from 15 hours (185 reels) of found scenes under the name L'Enfer d'Henri-Georges Clouzot.
[4] Bromberg was caught for two hours in a stalled elevator with a woman who turned out to be Clouzot's second wife, Inès de Gonzalez.
Upon learning the identity of the woman and of the existence of the footage, Bromberg convinced her to release it to make his film.
Most notably in the psychedelic climax of the film, rotating lighting rigs were placed in-front of the camera and actors.