| Le Corbeau | |
|---|---|
| Directed by | Henri-Georges Clouzot |
| Produced by | René Montis |
| Written by | Henri Chavance Henri-Georges Clouzot |
| Starring | Pierre Fresnay Ginette Leclerc Pierre Larquey Micheline Francey |
| Music by | Tony Aubin |
| Distributed by | Tobis Films, Paris |
| Release date(s) | 1943 |
| Running time | 92 min |
| Language | French |
Le Corbeau (The Raven) is a 1943 French film directed by Henri-Georges Clouzot. The film was notable for causing serious trouble to its director after World War II because it had been produced by Continental Films, a German production company established in France in the early months of the war, and because the film had been perceived by the underground and the communist press as vilifying the French people. Because of this, Clouzot was initially banned for life from directing in France and the film too was banned, but both bans were lifted in 1947.[1] The film was remade as The 13th Letter (1951) by Otto Preminger.
The word corbeau has always been the French for raven or crow, but has now acquired the sense of a sender of anonymous letters.[2][3] One of the most infamous cases of this kind centred on the murder of four-year-old Grégoire Villemin. A sender of anonymous letters claimed responsibility and at one stage the boy's own mother was accused of sending the letters.[4]
Contents |
In a small French town identified as 'anywhere', anonymous poison pen letters are sent by somebody signing as Le Corbeau (the Raven). The letters start by accusing doctor Rémy Germain (Pierre Fresnay) of having an affair with Laura Vorzet (Micheline Francey), the pretty young wife of the elderly psychiatrist Dr. Vorzet (Pierre Larquey). Germain is also accused of practicing illegal abortions. Letters are then sent to virtually all the population of the town, but keep getting back at the initial victim, Dr Germain. The situation becomes serious when a patient of the hospital commits suicide with his straight razor after the Raven writes to him that his cancer is terminal. Marie Corbin, a nurse in the infirmary, becomes a suspect and is arrested, but soon new letters arrive. Germain's lover Denise is suspected, only for Laura to be identified by material contained in her blotter. Germain agrees to sign an order committing Laura as insane, just before he is called away to a patient. Just as the ambulance takes Laura away, Germain returns and finds Vorzet dead at his desk, his throat cut by the cancer patient's mother as he was writing the Raven's final triumphant letter.
The film is loosely based on a famous anonymous letter case that started in the town of Tulle (France) in 1917. Anonymous letters had been sent by somebody signing the eye of the tiger, accusing notable figures in the town of adultery.[1]
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