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Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot 1943)
It was very interesting seeing a film that was made in occupied France under the watchful eye of the Nazis.
As a movie I liked Le Corbeau as it held my interest and the characters and setting was interesting to me. Of course the plot of someone writing 'poison pen' letters in a small town and causing all sorts of mayhem and suspicion, made for lots of tension. I wonder what a director like Hitchcock could've done with this story?
There was a lot of potential here, but the film itself isn't real polished and several key scenes seem to be missing. It must have took until the middle of the film for me to realize that Dr. Germain had a previous love affair with the old doctor's wife, Laura (up to that point I thought it was just rumor). And I was confused when the tart with the limp, Denise, talked about her one night fling with Dr. Germain. Did I miss that scene? I had no idea they were ever together.
So yeah I enjoyed the film and I appreciated it's uniqueness in film history.
Wartime propaganda? After WWII the free French claimed this film made by a German film company in occupied France was demeaning to the French people and the French resistances....Nah, that's not what the film is doing. It's telling a real event than occurred in a small French Town in 1917. If Le Corbeau had been made immediately after the war it would've been hailed as a homage to the French resistances...and the movie's suspicious & spying town's people akin to the French collaborators who worked with the Germans.
But sometimes a movie is just a movie with no hidden agenda as is the case here with Le Corbeau.
Le Corbeau (Henri-Georges Clouzot 1943)
It was very interesting seeing a film that was made in occupied France under the watchful eye of the Nazis.
As a movie I liked Le Corbeau as it held my interest and the characters and setting was interesting to me. Of course the plot of someone writing 'poison pen' letters in a small town and causing all sorts of mayhem and suspicion, made for lots of tension. I wonder what a director like Hitchcock could've done with this story?
There was a lot of potential here, but the film itself isn't real polished and several key scenes seem to be missing. It must have took until the middle of the film for me to realize that Dr. Germain had a previous love affair with the old doctor's wife, Laura (up to that point I thought it was just rumor). And I was confused when the tart with the limp, Denise, talked about her one night fling with Dr. Germain. Did I miss that scene? I had no idea they were ever together.
So yeah I enjoyed the film and I appreciated it's uniqueness in film history.
Wartime propaganda? After WWII the free French claimed this film made by a German film company in occupied France was demeaning to the French people and the French resistances....Nah, that's not what the film is doing. It's telling a real event than occurred in a small French Town in 1917. If Le Corbeau had been made immediately after the war it would've been hailed as a homage to the French resistances...and the movie's suspicious & spying town's people akin to the French collaborators who worked with the Germans.
But sometimes a movie is just a movie with no hidden agenda as is the case here with Le Corbeau.