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MovieMail's Review
The German Occupation brought Clouzot a long-term contract as a writer-director for the Nazi-controlled Continental Films, who had been handed a brief by Goebbels to produce unchallenging films for the French public. They certainly didn’t get it with Le Corbeau (1942), Clouzot’s second film as director, which has often been called ‘the first true French film noir’. Its assured direction, atmosphere of moral corruption and the bitter and caustic bite of the film’s dialogue ensured a storm of controversy and it was attacked by the right-wing Vichy regime, the left-wing Resistance press and the Catholic Church.
Based on a true story, the film tells of a provincial French town plagued by suspicion, paranoia and hatred after the appearance of several anonymous poison-pen letters signed only ‘Le Corbeau’ (‘The Raven’). It was uncomfortable mirror to hold up to occupied wartime society and the film was banned after the Liberation, only for its fortunes to be revived when it was hailed as a subversive masterwork by a number of prominent French cultural figures.
A dark film produced during the German Occupation from a pessimistic Clouzot. A village suffers a spate of poison-pen letters written by 'The Raven' which turns everyone against everyone else. The film was attacked by the right-wing Vichy regime, the left-wing Resistance press (for attacking the French moral character) and the Catholic Church, and was banned after the Liberation. Its fortunes were revived when it was championed by French intellectuals as a subversive tale.
At last, we are able to see one of Clouzot’s most acerbic classics, unseen in this country for many years. Ironically, Otto Preminger re-made the film in Hollywood, bu... more >
At last, we are able to see one of Clouzot’s most acerbic classics, unseen in this country for many years. Ironically, Otto Preminger re-made the film in Hollywood, but (ruthlessly unsentimental director though he was) it’s unlikely that Hollywood censorship of the day would have allowed the frankness of Clouzot's blistering original – the eroticism and abortion themes must have been homogenised (impossible to say, as Preminger’s re-make has similarly been unseeable). Henri-George Clouzot’s classics The Wages of Fear and Les Diaboliques have long whetted our appetites for Le Corbeau, a dark and subversive study of human nature starring Pierre Fresnay and Ginette Leclerc.
A wave of hysteria sweeps the small provincial town of St Robin when a series of
poison-pen letters signed “Le Corbeau” (The Raven) denounce several
prominent members of society. Starting with the village doctor, the sinister trickle of letters soon becomes a flood, and no one is safe from the malicious accusations, which include abortion and drug addiction. Condemned by the political left and right and the church upon its release in 1943, Clouzot was banned from filmmaking for two years after making the film.
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