Read all Movie Reviews by Jacquelyn

Le Corbeau

Pierre Fresnay, Ginette LeClerc, Micheline Francey; Directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot

Le Corbeau centers around a small village of people who live their lives in a network of corruption and betrayal. Husbands are cheating on their wives, wives are cheating on their husbands, a gynecologist regularly performs abortions, and physicians get frisky with their patients. Not a good place to be for a person with a good conscience. Somebody decides to do something about this. Dr. Germain is the first person to receive a poison-pen letter, a message beginning with the words “You lecher...!”. This person seems to know all of Dr. Germain’s sins. Soon it appears that the mysterious sender, known as Le Corbeau (The Raven), knows the sins of the entire town, and is wasting no time in sharing the knowledge with as many people as he or she can. The villagers quickly erupt into a panic, spewing accusations and pointing fingers as fast as they can to save their ‘good names’. Nuns, nurses, doctors, mayors, children, - no one is safe from blame. One thing is for sure; murder must be added to the list of sins, for the madness will only stop once the heart of the Raven does.
 
Made during the Nazi occupation of France (1943), this film came under severe criticism and endured lengthy battles against censorship for its controversial themes and ideas. The Catholic Church was horrified by the mere mention of the word ‘abortion’. The politicians of the day got a little nervous with the ‘confronting ones sins’ idea, and the fact that the lead character, Dr. Germain, refused to attend church was just detestable to audiences of the respectable kind. This is one of the more interesting film noir WWII era films I have seen. It had enough twists and suspicious characters to keep you guessing as to who ‘the Raven’ was, and didn’t disappoint when the final (and most logical) possibility was revealed and proven. The camera movement was noticeably good. One scene has us running along with a nurse who is being chased by a mob, and the suspense and terror felt real to me. Shadows and light are par for the course in noir-style films, and this film makes plenty of use of both elements, but a few gags were redundant (swinging light bulbs, etc.). The dialogue was smart, and even the minor characters avoided becoming one-dimensional. The actors were all very expressive (except Germain, who was supposed to be quite stoic), and the setting and grave tone grounded any pretension.
 
The pacing dragged a little, and we revisit two or three rooms multiple times, which got a bit tedious and boring for me. I wasn’t sure who to root for in this film. The protagonist was Dr. Germain, and although he strived to live a decent life, he failed miserably. The Raven exposed the corrupt, but also caused an unnecessary suicide by revealing a man’s terminal illness to him quite brutally. A character in the film notes this conflict. We know there is light, and we know there is dark. But where one ends and one begins is the tricky thing. A fine mystery. And a story that can turn the camera into our souls is always deserving of a place higher up on the shelf.
 
Story = A

Originality = A

DVD Extras = A-

Acting = B+

Enjoyability = B+

Visuals = B

Overall Grade = B+