IMDb user comments for
Corbeau, Le (1943)

advertisement

Filter:

Best Chronological Prolific Authors Loved It Hated It Hide Spoilers:

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

Index

27 comments in total

---

28 out of 34 people found the following comment useful :-
The first of Clouzot's dark masterpieces, 16 septiembre 2004

Author: TrevorAclea de London, England

Le Corbeau aka The Raven is a surprisingly vivid piece of film-making, a wonderfully cinematic dissection of a town torn apart by the poison-pen letters of 'The Raven.' The initial balance of power that maintains the status quo (A knows B's indiscretion, B knows A's, so neither can destroy the other without disgracing himself) is soon destroyed as the whole town learns each other's dirty linen, with suspicions, half-truths and outright lies soon lead to the town turning on each other in the search for a scapegoat. Tragedy, suicide and murder inevitably follow…

This, of course, was the film that earned Clouzot a lasting reputation as a collaborator – made for the infamous German Continental films, it was attacked by both the Nazis for discouraging the French from informing (their main source of information during the occupation) and the resistance for attacking the French moral character. Of the two, it's pretty obvious the Nazis were on the right track. Even though the Germans are conspicuous by their absence, it makes clear that the anonymous informer/s are undermining solidarity and making the town easy prey for predators (it is implicit in the film that the Raven is not the only poison-pen writer in the town as a veritable flock of Ravens emerge).

The suspense comes not from the Raven's identity, which is blindingly obvious in this era of double-endings but must have seemed groundbreaking at the time, but from what damage the Raven will do next. Blessed with a surprisingly unlikable hero and a frankness lacking in US and British films of the period – abortion and drug-addiction are discussed as readily as adultery and embezzlement – there is a somewhat awkward Catholic moral imposed at the end (the good doctor learns it is better to let a mother die in childbirth to save the child than vice versa because the future is more important than the past) but it's still refreshingly dark. The script establishes character, setting and guilty secrets with remarkable economy and the film is blessed with a great use of location and some visually impressive set pieces: the funeral where people step around a letter left by the Raven before a child picks it up or the huge church silenced by a single letter fluttering down from the gallery are particularly striking. It also has a biting black wit and an interesting discussion about the interdependent nature of good and evil.

A genuine masterpiece, and entertaining with it, the Criterion DVD boasts exceptionally good print quality - sharp and clear - with an interesting 18-minute interview with Bertran Tavernier on Continental and Clouzot and an interesting extract from a French documentary with Clouzot and others talking about the film and French cinema during the Nazi occupation.

---

24 out of 31 people found the following comment useful :-
A little-known gem, 10 julio 2004

Author: William J. Fickling (wjfickling@earthlink.net) de Columbia, South Carolina, USA

Although I pride myself on my knowledge of fine films, I must admit with a trace of embarrassment that I had never heard of this film before yesterday, when a brief blurb on the Turner Classic Movies schedule prompted me to watch it. My principal motivation for watching it was that it was directed by Clouzot, whose "Diabolique" and "Wages of Fear" are favorites of mine. What a find! While not quite the equal of "Diabolique," it comes very close, and it is the equal of anything by Hitchcock. Viewed simply as a thriller, it is marvelous, but it is much more than that. It is a profound character study and a howl of rage at the small-mindedness and pettiness of small town bourgeois communities. Considering that it was made during the German occupation, it can also be viewed as about as scathing a critique of Gestapo methods as a director could be expected to make without risking his life.

After I saw "The Sorrow and The Pity" in 1971, I held the belief that any French artist who continued to work during the occupation was a legitimate target for criticism. Since then I have moderated this view somewhat. After all, who among us can honestly say what we would do in a similar situation? While there is no excuse for collaboration, can an artist be criticized for staying in his country and making a protest in the only way he can? I think that is what Clouzot did here, and the result is a masterwork. I only wish this were more widely known and publicized. 10/10

---

19 out of 22 people found the following comment useful :-
Secrets of a Gallic Peyton Place unearthed in Clouzot's misanthropic thriller, 20 julio 2003

Author: bmacv de Western New York

Even the children in Henri-Georges Clouzot's Le Corbeau (The Raven) are sneaky and malicious. No doubt they reflect their upbringing in the stifling French village of St. Robin, where a series of poison-pen letters – signed The Raven – has galvanized the populace into a spree of spying, whispering and finger-pointing. Most of the letters accuse an aloof doctor (Pierre Fresnay) of occupying illicit beds and of performing illegal operations – relieving women of burdens they're unwilling to bear.

The accusations aren't entirely fanciful – Fresnay has cheerless affairs going with the young wife (Micheline Francey) of a sententious, much older doctor (Pierre Larquey) and with the town pump (Ginette Leclerc), a smoldering seductress who's both lame and a hypochondriac. But the evil epistles disgorge more than enough malice to go around, alluding to dirty little secrets that touch just about everybody in this Gallic Peyton Place.

When one of the letters causes the suicide of a young man dying of liver cancer, another slips out of a wreath on his casket during his funeral procession, and yet another flutters from the rafters of the church during the requiem mass. The search for the anonymous writer reaches the point of hysteria – what else does the unseen assassin know, and who will be the next victim? Alone among the townsfolk, the mother (Sylvie) of the suicide seems resigned and resolute....

Clouzot has been called the French Hitchcock, but when Le Corbeau hit the screens in 1943 – released by a German production company during the Nazi occupation of France – he wasn't welcomed as warmly as the mischievous but harmless cherub across the Atlantic. its mordantly unflattering portrait of the French bourgeoisie was shunned as little short of treasonous. To be sure, Le Corbeau, like most of Clouzot's work (Diabolique, The Wages of Fear) seems to take Shakespeare's misanthropic Timon of Athens as inspiration for its outlook on humanity; it's certainly no tourist brochure for the French provinces.

When Otto Preminger remade the movie in 1951 as The 13th Letter (setting it in the Province of Québec, and starring Michael Rennie, Linda Darnell, Charles Boyer and Constance Smith), he had to pull back from the nastier material – the routine, glum adultery, the rumors of abortions – and apply rosier tints to the characters. None of that sentimental nonsense for Clouzot, who unrepentantly hewed to his malevolent vision right to the bitter end.

---

12 out of 13 people found the following comment useful :-
Thunderbolt ., 8 diciembre 2001
Author: dbdumonteil

It's a legend!and a black one!The most famous scandal of French cinema during the occupation,le corbeau (the raven) has not lost its feathers even today. The facts:it was produced by the German firm "continental" where Clouzot used to work as a scripter "en chef".But people went as far as saying that the movie was shown in German movie theaters under the disagreeable title "a small town like so many other ones in France" .Balderdash!The movie was never released in Germany at the time. As Roger Boussinot wrote in "l'encyclopédie du cinéma"(1980),"the bourgeoisie ,be it French or German was all the same everywhere,and Hitler,whose fortunes were on the wane ,had to treat his own (bourgeoisie) gently.Actually,the film ran into difficulties after the Liberation.It was the ideal scapegoat,and along with so many others ,like Sacha Guitry,Arletty(the female star of "les enfants du paradis"),Ginette Leclerc (the female star of "le corbeau")and other "collaborators" (sic),Clouzot was blacklisted.

Why so much acrimony against "le corbeau"?Because it depicted life in French provinces in a way that was far from being idyllic.Anonymous letters are sent by the "raven",and drags the town through the mud.At first sight ,it seems like a simple whodunit:Clouzot 's first effort (l'assassin habite au 21) was a thriller.But there's more to the picture than meets the eye:what was latent in the first movie,we see it in its true colors:Clouzot's contempt for the whole human race,which will increase over the years.No character in "le corbeau " to identify with:the prototype of the film noir.Where is good?Where is bad?The most famous scene remains that of the light sway :the world is not black and white,what you thought black might be white and vice versa .

"Le Corbeau' was released at the wrong time.It was too different from the "Occupation" movies which dealt with "escape" "dream" as works as Carné's "les visiteurs du soir" or Jean Delannoy/Jean Cocteau's "l'éternel retour" testify.It was 1947 before HG Clouzot was allowed to direct again.Four years has passed,and he came back to Belgian writer Steeman (whose "le dernier des six" and "l'assassin habite au 21" he had already adapted),but his venom and his misanthropy hadn't dried up,and more masterpieces were to follow.

Otto Preminger directed a remake "the 13th letter" in 1951 which I haven't seen.On the other hand ,there was a French "modern "update by Yves Boisset (Radio Corbeau,1989)which is watchable but which can't be compared to Clouzot's thunderbolt back in 1943.

---

15 out of 19 people found the following comment useful :-
The plague of lies and deceit, 24 enero 2005
Author: stephen-357 de United States

"Beware! I see all and tell all." So quoth the Raven, the pen name of the mysterious writer of poison pen letters that has plagued a small town in France with suspicion, fear and anxiety. Since this film was made by a Frenchman under a German controlled studio during Nazi occupied France in 1943, there is a subtext not necessarily explicit in the film itself, but nonetheless pervades its very essence. In Le Corbeau, Dr. Remy Germain becomes a victim when letters start circulating that accuse him of having an affair with a married woman and of being an abortionist. Both of these accusations are false but do contain half-truths, and it is the unfortunate tendency for groups of people, usually motivated by fear, to assume the worst. Furthermore, Germain is an outsider, in that he refuses to participate in gossip and avoids social clicks, which ironically makes him a target. Soon he will find himself under suspicion and alienated. Since virtually every member of the community has some skeleton in their closet, they would much rather turn their ire on the accused than risk having their own affairs aired by The Raven. And so the drama escalates to a crisis where Clouzot does not even spare the victim of blame. By assuming a position of detachment, Germain has turned a blind eye and thereby contributing to ignorance which only provides fuel for the Raven and the lies and deceit spread like a plague.

---

13 out of 16 people found the following comment useful :-
Well-crafted suspense classic, 21 marzo 1999

Author: withnail-4 de New Haven, CT

If you liked "Diabolique" and "Wages of Fear" check out this earlier, equally good film by the same director. I was confused a bit by the quick introduction to all the characters, but the suspense is maintained and controlled with precision. The final 15 minutes are gemlike, a shuffling of possibilities, and the final 30 seconds a quick succession of powerful images. If you like whodunits, like Rene Claire's "And Then There Were None" you will like this one.

---

8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Poison pen letters, 4 octubre 2006

Author: jotix100 de New York

*** This comment may contain spoilers ***

"Le Courbeau" was Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece. He paid dearly for having been instrumental in bringing it to the screen. At the time it went into production, an occupied France was not the best place to be. Because Clouzot's picture was made through German owned Continental Films, with its distribution rights, proved to cause the opposite effect than what the director wanted. He paid a high price for daring to present his tale about a page of shame in French History. Not only did the left despised this work, but Clouzot was also criticized by the Vichy government of the ultra right.

The story takes place in a provincial town where poison pen letters begin appearing all over the place. They are being sent to everyone. The main target of the intrigue points out to one of the doctors in town who is accused of performing illegal abortions as well as carrying on illicit affairs with some of the town's respectable women. The letters destroy lives and reputations without any consideration to the ruined lives along the way.

Not having seen this film in years, we must congratulate the Criterion DVD people for the glorious transfer they have done. Nicolas Hayer's crisp black and white cinematography is a joy to watch again. Tony Aubin's music score plays well in the background, complimenting Clouzot's vision.

The film is also a joy to watch because of the fabulous performances from this talented cast. Pierre Fresnay makes a wonderful Dr. Remy Germain, the man at the center of the story. Ginette Leclerc, one of the best actresses of the period and Micheline Francey, who plays Laura, make a valuable contribution. Helena Manson seen as Marie Corbin, the hated nurse, does a fine job as well.

We recommend any viewer to watch the Criterion DVD to admire Henri-Georges Clouzot masterpiece that speaks volumes about human beings at a trying time of their lives.

---

8 out of 8 people found the following comment useful :-
Humanity, before there were tabloids, 21 junio 2006

Author: manuel-pestalozzi de Zurich, Switzerland

According to a short interview with filmmaker Bertrand Tavernier in the French DVD-edition, the production company responsible for Le Corbeau was founded at the instigation of the Nazi propaganda minister, Joseph Goebbels. It was supposed to produce unpolitical, „uplifting" entertainment. And it functioned outside of the control and censorship authority of the collaborationist French Vichy regime. Somehow, with Le Corbeau director Georges Henri Coluzot succeeded in standing the company's original precept on its head, painting a dark and pessimistic picture of French society. The courage, daring (and foolhardiness?) of the makers of Le Corbeau is, I assume, beyond comprehension for a contemporary audience. Many French, not least the Resistance and the post war authorities, were offended by this portrayal. But, doesn't the title sequence say explicitly that it could have happened anywhere?

That is true, of course. The pastime of making slanderous remarks and general gossiping is an universal one. In Le Corbeau, set in a small provincial town where everybody knows everybody, almost no one and hardly any scandalous subject is spared. Virtually the whole community gets caught in this whirl of wild accusations and suspicions (I detected a certain resemblance with High Noon). It is beautiful how the director gets the message through that nobody is entirely good or entirely bad, culminating in a great scene where a primitive lamp is sent swinging back and forth, letting the shadows wander.

In this movie an anonymous writer sends letters to different people with wild accusations. Oddly, the big letters, the layout and even the short, catchy phrasing look like the prototype of a tabloid newspaper. The letters actually are hand made scandal sheets in an era when newspapers still were meant for fully literate people. One of the highlights of the movie is a funeral procession in which one of those letters falls from the horse drawn hearse. Due to its bold lettering it is immediately recognizable to everyone, but the mourners do not dare pick it up and wait until a curious child gets hold of it. Then they quickly gather around – a wonderful scene.

Le Corbeau is a timeless movie that I can highly recommend.

---

9 out of 12 people found the following comment useful :-
The Raven Never More, 21 julio 2005

Author: RARubin de United States

There is one thing that the French do better than almost any country, they produce first class cinema. Le Corbeau (The Raven) is no exception. Director Henri-Georges Clouzot makes a fine film from a popular novel about real poison pen strife in Tulane France during Vichy France in the early 40's.

The first thing an American would notice about the film, there are references, nay, there are actual scenes of passion and sex, clothed, but obvious between Pierre Fresnay of the pencil mustache and Ginette Leclerc of the lacquered lips in a 1943 film. It's subdued, and the biting of the hand scene is a little pulpy, but these folks want to do it. Americans would have to wait for Bogart and Bacall before they got some steam.

Since the Nazi's were essentially in control of France at the time, they thought an anti-informant film a bad idea. They hated it, but the French audience's ground down by what was essentially a military defeat and then an occupation, were thrilled by the tension and mystery of Le Corbeau. There are many secrets about the townspeople that complicate life in this tense little town until the culprit has a comeuppance. There are a number of classic original scenes like the light bulb scene or the avenging angel scene. This one holds up very well.

---

8 out of 11 people found the following comment useful :-
Depressing and disturbing but just great, 11 septiembre 2005

Author: Wayne Malin (wwaayynnee51@hotmail.com) de United States

This takes place in a small French town in 1943. Someone called "The Raven" is sending poison pen letters to various people in the town. They're filled with half-truths or outright lies but it begins to affect people. Quickly the whole town falls apart--relationships are destroyed, mistrust and suspicion are all over and it finally leads to suicide and a murder.

Plotwise this may seem familiar to many but it's beautifully done. The film moves quickly, is well-acted and director Henri-Georges Clourot (who also directed the classic "Diabolique") does a wonderful job of visualizing the paranoia and hatred of the townspeople. The best sequence has a nurse running away when she thinks she is being chased by a crowd. Also this deals with sex outside marriage, pregnancy and abortion--taboo subject in 1943.

Believe it or not this was seen as Nazi propaganda in its day! It was shot while France was being occupied and shows a town full of violent, suspicious and angry people. French people thought it was a slap in the face to them--showing them as ignorant people who let lies destroy them. That seems pretty silly now.

It's now rightfully regarded as a classic. Well worth catching. I give it a 10.

---

---

Page 1 of 3:

[1] [2] [3]

Add another comment

---

Related Links

Plot summary	Ratings	External reviews
Plot keywords	Detalles principales	Your user comments
Your vote history