VividSimon Simply Perfect

Comwayon A Disappointing Continuation

Nessieldwi Very interesting film. Was caught on the premise when seeing the trailer but unsure as to what the outcome would be for the showing. As it turns out, it was a very good film.

ThedevilChoose When a movie has you begging for it to end not even half way through it's pure crap. We've all seen this movie and this characters millions of times, nothing new in it. Don't waste your time.

lasttimeisaw A sleepy French town is driven into paranoia and distrust by a nexus of anonymous poison pen letters signed by a nom-de-plume "Le corbeau" which means "the raven" in English, disclosing underhanded goings-on among the townsfolk, and it all starts with the first one accusing Doctor Rémy Germain (Fresnay) of adultery with Laura Vorzet (Francey), the much younger wife of his colleague Doctor Michel Vorzet (Larquey), as well as carrying out illegal abortions. Soon audience will find out the adultery is as true as Rémy's pro-choice predilection, and an obvious suspect, could be Marie Corbin (Manson), Laura's spinster sister, a priggish and callous nurse working in the hospital. Capitalizing on an incident of a patient's suicide (after Le corbeau informs him that he has the terminal cancer), the masses turn their backs on Marie, since no one wants their dirty little secrets becoming the laughing stock of the town, Marie becomes the whipping woman even without any substantial proof, there is definitely safety in numbers, a common mistake we onlookers should all rationally abstain from.It goes without saying that the letters do not stop there, and at then the suspects are narrowed down to eighteen individuals sitting in the gallery of the church, among them there is Denise (Leclerc), Germain's gimp neighbor who is so pining for him that le corbeau could be her own creation should be driven by jealousy and malice. A protracted dictation test to compare the hand-writings of the said suspects with the original closes up short when Denise timely faints out of fatigue, and a subsequent discovery from Rémy almost catches her red-handed, it is only "almost", because he might forget a simple fact: to imitate someone's handwriting isn't such a high-wire endeavor and no expert can ascertain that all those 1oo-plus letters cranked out in a short stretch are all from the same hand, in other words, everyone literate could be "le corbeau" if he or she is properly motivated, by circumspectly imitating these extant letters, a copycat can easily put words into the mouth of le corbeau. That is the most astounding truth mined by Clouzot and his co-writer Louis Chavance based on a real event occurred in Tulle, Limousin 1917. For better or worse, Clouzot entertains his audience with the culprit flip-flop until the very last moment, during which the fast-paced twists pan out rather hastily to keep deliberation at bay, Equally, Laura's ink-stained fingers and Denise's slapdash's pregnant threat are perfunctorily overlooked in lieu of the reveal and its resultant comeuppance, as is Rémy's own impetus behind his actions. Composed of a handsome cast: Pierre Fresnay's Rémy is a suave, self-principled ramrod weighed down by his own cynical perspective; Ginette Leclerc's recalcitrant hussy gallantly bestrides the line between eyebrow-raising and beguiling, and a voluble Pierre Larquey can be laughing all the way to the bank with his undimmed panache, save for the upshot, LE CORBEAU shapes itself as an allegorical study of sociology and human nature, a minor Clouzot in comparison nevertheless, is an engaging noir whodunit crafted with assurance and considerable oomph.

morangles29 Cruel and fully aware of it. I was lucky enough to see this movie in the late 60s for the first time; since then, every time, I can watch it, I do!True, there is the sordid story about the Collaboration: who did, who did not? Who could avoid it: probably moving to Brazil would have helped a lot of directors, actors and crews. Yet fleeing France would have been rather lame than face reality. H.G.Clouzot's movie should have been called the Crow, rather than the Raven. Edgar A. Poe gave to the bird some poetic background. on the other hand, the manic croaking of the Crow, like an evil laugh would have been justified as the villain of the movie at one point seems to morph - psychologically- into a crow. Vichy was about hypocrisy. Anti-abortion, bourgeoisie's hidden lies, secret lovers, etc... Somewhere in France, a typical town finds itself obliged to look at its true self. Some people will commit suicide. A lover reveals itself (no spoiler) to be not really loving; the hero seems unable to choose who to court. Until it is revealed that real Love can sacrifice itself. At the end, Justice is served by Love, maternal revengeful Love. Like a goddess from a Greek tragedy. All the actors are doing an amazing job, down to the teenager whose heart is already housing hate and disillusionment. This script deserves a 2012 remake... maybe this time using emails and twitter as mean to weave the tale. Evil is in us and nobody is immune if we do not accept to give some Love back.

Eumenides_0 In the small French village of St. Robin a reserved country doctor receives a poison-pen accusing him of practicing abortions to relieve mothers of unwilling burdens. Soon everyone else starts receiving similar letters, accusing each and everyone of dark secrets. Paranoia and mass hysteria set in as people begin spying each other looking for the culprit. Innocents are slandered and persecuted without evidence. Violence ensues, one man commits suicide. And yet the poison-pen letters, always signed by The Raven, continue to arrive.This is a slow, carefully-built suspense movie in which the identity of The Raven isn't important (and for my part the revelation was ultimately disappointing); Henri-Georges Clouzot is more interested in the human drama, in the relationships between the characters, in the way intrigue, rumors, hidden hatreds infect and destroy a community. It's a misanthropic movie, showing how easily people can become irrational and violent and suggesting there's no cure for this, that it is embedded in our nature. Clouzot, working during the Nazi occupation of France, had many reasons to be depressed about Mankind.As the study of a community it is interesting. As a thriller I found it dull. Many of the qualities that made me enjoy his other thriller Les Diaboliques is also here, but something didn't click for me. The ending, the moralist punishment of The Raven, seemed so rushed and contrary to the rest of this bleak movie, that I wonder if Clouzot was forced to put it there. I had the same feeling about Les Diaboliques.Slow and sometimes dull, it's an interesting thriller, but not one I'd like to watch again any time soon.

Michael_Elliott Le Corbeau (1943) *** 1/2 (out of 4) French thriller directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot about a small French village being torn apart by poison pen letters, which is turning everyone against one another. It took about twenty minutes for me to "get" the story since I was expecting the "poison" to be actual "poison" but once I caught on the film became very enjoyable and I'm sure it'll get better on repeat viewings. Pierre Fresnay is wonderful as the doctor who seems to be getting all the blunt from the letters. The actual mystery of who's sending the letters kept me guessing all the way to the end. American title: The Raven.