Le Corbeau
Une petite ville, ici ou ailleurs
(A small town, anywhere)
I've been quite lucky coming across unknown (to me) gems in several of these recent HoFs, right in a row, and with this one: Le Corbeau.
I was hooked from the opening shots of the town that brought us to Le docteur Rémy Germain stepping out of a house to the waiting elderly women. His hands bloody.
With all the nosey side looks and whispered conversations, we are shown a very ripe location for gossip and half-truths to be planted and run wild in.
As does The Raven.
An anonymous letter writer that sprinkles just enough truth into their accusations to turn the town and it's inhabitants into a hungry mob. Hellbent on destroying one another.
My favorite scene that depicts this brilliantly is at the grave site of a suicide victim from one of the poisoned letters. As the crowd turns on the one they believe guilty, the mother, in black, stares upward to the heavens. Too grief-stricken to acknowledge any of it.
The ease of lying was equally well expressed with the child who hides a letter in her dress and flat out lies she hasn't seen it. It made me think of
The Hunt. (yeah, children are too innocent to lie. . . bull f@ckin hockey)
The spinning of the web of deceit and paranoia was done exceedingly well and shows just how easy it is for people who've known one another all their lives, to turn on one another in the worst possible way.
The whodunit aspect of this, where everyone is suspected, had a fantastic twist once it is discovered who was writing them and what happens to them. Making for a fantastic ending for me. Especially since, just how much, I loved the character and their cavalier attitude to all of it. I was completely hood-winked by that person and utterly hooked by the false lead; the young girl, Rolande, whom I was 100% sure was the culprit from the first time I saw her bouncing a ball against the inside wall, listening in on Remy's and Laura's conversation.
I also enjoyed how we had zero monologue on the Why's of it. Obviously it was revenge for infidelity, but I also pondered if, being a psychologist, if this was, at a more deeper level, a social experiment. Probably not, but a curious after thought.
F@ckin BRAVO @
Siddon!!