Le Corbeau Le Corbeau Criterion 227 1943 / B&W / 1:33 flat full frame / 92 min. / Street Date February 17, 2004 / 29.95 Starring Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Micheline Francey, Héléna Manson, Sylvie, Liliane Maigné, Pierre Larquey Cinematography Nicolas Hayer Set Decoration André Andrejew, Hermann Wann Film Editor Marguerite Beaugé Original Music Tony Aubin Written by Henri-Georges Clouzot, Louis Chavance from his story Produced by René Montis, Raoul Ploquin Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot
	Reviewed by Glenn Erickson This remarkable thriller from Henri-Georges Clouzot, the maker of such respected films as The Wages of Fear and Diabolique, is a misanthropic masterpiece darker than film noir. Twenty five years before The Sorrow and the Pity went public with the raw ugliness of the German occupation of France, this suspenseful mystery expressed the essence of the occupation. It was produced during the occupation, and overseen by the Germans themselves. Criterion's superb presentation accompanies the seldom-screened feature with key text and documentary source material that explains the controversy that made Le Corbeau a sticky subject in the post-war readjustment period of reprisals and accomodations. Synopsis: Hundreds of poison pen letters turn a small French town into a festering pit of suspicion, malice and hatred. At its center, Dr. Remy Germain (Pierre Fresnay) is accused of performing abortions and consorting with Laura Vorzet (Micheline Francey) the wife of psychiatrist Dr. Michel Vorzet (Pierre Larquey). Crippled local girl Denise Saillens (Ginette Leclerc) confuses Germain's judgment, while her younger sister Rolande (Liliane Maigné) has stolen from the post office where she works. All of these lies come out into the open, until the public's hatred falls on Laura's sister, Nurse Marie Corbin (Héléna Manson), who may have been stealing narcotics from the hospital. Nobody knows where it will end, as the town eats itself up alive. If we think of 40s thrillers, there are only a few American pictures that even approach the frightening complexity of Clouzot's Le Corbeau. Films noir could make an occasional artistic statement with the concept of paranoia, but Clouzot presents an autopsy of a diseased community in all its ugly detail, leaving not a single citizen in the clear. A grieving mother confirms a desire for revenge. A shopkeeper is quick to demonize a doctor thought to be an abortionist. A teenager steals money from her job and then uses the story to solicit more money from sympathetic adults. A cripple uses her infirmity to entice a man into her bed. An elder doctor watches his young wife stray while making knowing remarks from the sidelines. The postmaster insists that all mail be delivered, including the hate mail, but is careful to intercept letters addressed to his wife. The sub-prefect of the town welcomes a management shake-up, until he becomes the target. Even a sweet girl crying on a playground is revealed to be a liar concealing one of the found poison pen letters. It's no joke, as one person commits suicide because of the Corbeau's malice and others not threatened with mob action may certainly have their lives ruined. Clouzot ties this giant ensemble of suspicion into a circle of fear and betrayal. If a place is judged by its communal spirit of trust, the town of Le Corbeau is the devil's work. When he's presumed guilty, the beleaguered Dr. Germain, already an emotional refugee from an earlier life, becomes completely disgusted with human nature. Even those closest to him immediately doubt, such as Germain's sweetheart Laura. Those one would hope to be supportive make sardonic remarks from the sidelines, like Germain's best friend Dr. Michel. This is the anti-Capra film, a frightening stew of misanthropy. Le Corbeau gets off to a fast start with some potentially confusing character introductions -- it's important to get some names and faces straight right off to avoid losing one's way through the quickly-mutating storyline. Every couple of scenes reveal someone new who might be the writer of the evil letters that bring out every hidden secret and ugly truth behind the town hypocrites. There are some classic scenes. The nurse is pursued down empty streets by a wave of threatening voices, and a single piece of paper interrupts a mass, holding the congregation riveted as it drifts slowly down from the balcony. In a chilling conclusion, the doctor must struggle with his emotions to refrain from deciding the Corbeau's identity too quickly -- the real letter writer is smart enough to deflect suspicion even as Dr. Germain closes in. There's a growing horror in the fear that the wrong person will be punished. Although not a horror film, Le Corbeau received special mention in classic criticism about horror pictures by Carlos Clarens and Ivan Butler. They recognized the film's concept of a 'diseased communal mind.' Upon completion the movie was seized upon by the German occupiers, retitled A Small Town in France and distributed back in Germany as propaganda evidence of the depraved French mindset. But the Gestapo in France didn't like the film, as it was critical of an aspect of the occupation they needed the most -- willing French informers. To them, Le Corbeau seemed an indictment of the occupation mindset where neighbors were likely to settle a dispute by denouncing the other party to the Nazis. After the war, director Clouzot took a two-year suspension from the film business as punishment for his alleged collaboration in working for the German-supported film company Continental. The performances in the film are uniformly excellent. The cast may seem unfamiliar but several actors hail from familiar titles. Pierre Fresnay is in Grand Illusion, the nurse Héléna Manson is in Kameradschaft and Lola Montés, Pierre Larquey returns in Clouzot's Quai des Orfèvres and Diabolique and Antoine Balpetré shows up again in Bresson's Diary of a Country Priest. Clouzot's pitiless community is a satire, but we immediately recognize the group behaviors as authentic. Rumors are accepted as truth, and privacy and presumption of innocence fall by the wayside. Pretty soon nobody respects anybody and the town is overrun by civilized savagery. In its unwavering negativity (broken, eventually, by the doctor's rediscovery of faith) Le Corbeau resembles the Val Lewton film The Seventh Victim, which quite independently portrays a Greenwich Village populated by defeatists, failed artists and disillusioned devil worshippers. There's even a person missing an arm in both pictures. It would take many years before horror films of any stripe approached Le Corbeau's basic nihilism. The chill of this thriller's final scenes betters the grim ending of something like The Night of the Living Dead. Reality is easily more frightening and disturbing than horror fantasy. This is Criterion's fourth H.G. Clouzot film, after Diabolique, The Wages of Fear and Quai des Orfevres. It's as purely cynical and honestly chilling as any of them. Criterion's DVD of Le Corbeau is a wonderful presentation. I had only seen a couple of scenes of the film on ragged & mangy 16mm prints, and this digital cleanup is remarkable. The scratch removal and overall picture punch-up is terrific and the track sounds very clean, if a tiny bit metallic in places. What I mostly remember of the film are a few key stills in old film books. When Héléna Manson's face looms up in the broken mirror of her ransacked room, it was a shock to finally come face to face with a scene I'd thought about 30 years before. The extras are carefully chosen. Alan Williams contributes an essay to a 16page book which also offers a pair of translated articles from 1947 on the controversy around the film, one pro- and one con-. It was called The Corbeau Affair, an ironic spill-over from the film to reality. Besides an original trailer (with alternate angles on a couple of scenes) the disc offers a lengthy section of a 1975 French docu about the the director, and another hefty interview piece with Bertrand Tavernier, who patiently explains the entire context in which Le Corbeau was filmed. Tavernier speaks in English and isn't subtitled; I almost wish he spoke in French, as he speaks so softly he's sometimes difficult to understand. The packaging uses sinister Corbeau-like scribblings and the charcoal image of crow spreading a black cloud of ink over a city below ... it's very effective. On a scale of Excellent, Good, Fair, and Poor, Le Corbeau rates: Movie: Excellent Video: Excellent Sound: Excellent Supplements: Video interview with Bertand Tarvernier, Excerpts from a 1975 documentary featuring Henri-Georges Clouzot, New essay by film scholar Alan Williams, Translated articles pro & con published during the Corbeau Affair in 1947. Packaging: Keep case Reviewed: February 11, 2004 [Savant Main Page] [Savant Links] [Article Index] [Review Index] [Savant 5 Year Report] DVD Savant Text © Copyright 2007 Glenn Erickson Advertise With Us Review Staff | About DVD Talk | Newsletter Subscribe | Join DVD Talk Forum Copyright © DVDTalk.com All rights reserved | Privacy Policy | Terms of Use