A small French town is plagued by an anonymous poison-pen writer who calls themselves 'le corbeau'. Neighbours turn on each other in the paranoia and distrust, with events even escalating to suicide in one instance. The fragile fabric of the community quickly disintegrates under the stress.
This Henri-Georges Clouzot film is a mystery that also looks at human psychology. More specifically it is a study of the darkness within people and it ultimately conveys a very pessimistic view of humanity. The genesis of the film itself is very interesting. It has the unfortunate claim to fame of having been a product of the Nazi occupation of France, in a period of great censorship, with movies being very controlled. In this sense it does seem quite strange as this is not precisely the kind of film you would expect the Nazis to allow – either they were less stringent on such matters than we are led to believe or they let this one slip through the net. Whatever the case, when this one did come out it didn't find too many admirers on account of it being viewed simultaneously as a collaborationist work by Nazi opponents, while on the other hand it was viewed by some in the Nazi regime as being critical of the poison-pen activity of informers which they actively encouraged. So with this in mind, this is a film with some historical interest for sure. The movie itself works fairly well as a mystery, with many suspects offered to us as potential culprits. I think mainly though it works as a look at how little it takes for people to turn against each other in a community and how quickly a lynch mob mentality can take hold. It's a pretty solid film, if maybe not a great one exactly. Its historical context certainly makes it an interesting watch for sure though.
This Henri-Georges Clouzot film is a mystery that also looks at human psychology. More specifically it is a study of the darkness within people and it ultimately conveys a very pessimistic view of humanity. The genesis of the film itself is very interesting. It has the unfortunate claim to fame of having been a product of the Nazi occupation of France, in a period of great censorship, with movies being very controlled. In this sense it does seem quite strange as this is not precisely the kind of film you would expect the Nazis to allow – either they were less stringent on such matters than we are led to believe or they let this one slip through the net. Whatever the case, when this one did come out it didn't find too many admirers on account of it being viewed simultaneously as a collaborationist work by Nazi opponents, while on the other hand it was viewed by some in the Nazi regime as being critical of the poison-pen activity of informers which they actively encouraged. So with this in mind, this is a film with some historical interest for sure. The movie itself works fairly well as a mystery, with many suspects offered to us as potential culprits. I think mainly though it works as a look at how little it takes for people to turn against each other in a community and how quickly a lynch mob mentality can take hold. It's a pretty solid film, if maybe not a great one exactly. Its historical context certainly makes it an interesting watch for sure though.