Le Corbeau

The Raven ( original title " Le Corbeau " ) is the title of a French crime film by Henri -Georges Clouzot, which was created in 1943 in the time of the German occupation. It was because of its content ( denunciation ) and its production conditions initially extremely controversial. Today he is considered not only one of the first film noir of French cinema, but also as a cinematic document of the atmosphere under occupation and as an early masterpiece of the director.

Action

Living in a small French provincial town is shaken by a wave of anonymous letters, all signed by "Raven ". The first aim of the attacks is a Certified reister doctor (Pierre Fresnay ), are accused of illegal abortions and adulterous relationships. But soon, other prominent members of the Community target of attacks, and the small town lapses into hysteria, when a patient in the hospital after receiving an anonymous letter takes life. Police, judicial and urban notables fail in the face of this situation. The victims remain alone. Anxiety, rumors and Lynch rampant mood. The attacked doctor has to take into their own hands his fate. At the end of the offender is transferred and directed by one of his victims.

Policy implications and reception

" The Raven " was initially extremely controversial because he was French society in a bleak and unappealing light. The German occupiers abused the film anti-French propaganda, but, significantly, the work never came into the German distributor. After the liberation, the director was therefore exposed to violent attacks. He was charged with a lifetime ban on working and starred Fresnay came for six weeks in detention. 1947, the ban against Clouzot was lifted, and as "The Raven" again ran in the French cinema, he was a great success.

Clouzot was influenced by the German Expressionist cinema of the twenties, but only long after the film's release grasped the French film critics that Clouzot's " Raven" in characteristic style, story, imagery, settings and lighting meets all the characteristics of a classic genre film noir. From today's perspective, it already points to later masterpieces of the director as " Wages of Fear " and " Diabolique / Les Diaboliques ".

Criticism

Kay Weniger The great people lexicon of the film wrote in the biography of director Clouzot:

" At an early high form Clouzot ran on already with his second, also produced by the ' Continental ' piece: " The Raven " depicts a morbid, fed by distrust small town world, as anonymous letters full of insinuations nourish mutual distrust and soon end up poisoning the atmosphere. " The Raven " was probably the best time portrait of the Vichy era, an extremely coherent reflection of a certain of denunciation and Spitzeltum French society - with the result that the film after the liberation in 1944, than any scratching of the chimera of a united nation was resisters undesirable and " The Raven " appeared to mean an attack on these life-lie, was banned. "

231194
de