Le crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)
(The Crime of Monsieur Lange)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 80m
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry, Marcel Lévesque, Henri Guisol
Synopsis:
The editor of a failing periodical swindles his investors and seduces his employees, but when he takes advantage of the naivety of his star copywriter, the worm turns!
Review:
The keynote of this unassuming masterpiece is the Collective formed by the hero upon the providential disappearance of the boss. Suddenly, the concierge is no longer a small-minded tyrant but an amiable drunk, decisions are taken together ('entre copains') and there is money to pay everyone; the lecherous plutocrat who only takes is no more. Unlike the working class loser of Histoire d'un crime (1901), Lange goes unpunished by society, which, represented by the patrons of a frontier inn, forgives him. Thus, in an extraordinary metonymy, Renoir evokes the optimism of the Front Populaire government and its bringing together of divergent affiliations in the hope of creating a society fit for the working man. In this light, the closing shot, like that of Chaplin's Modern Times the same year, evokes the shortlived optimism soon to be overshadowed by reactionary forces and war. The cast excels at conveying the chaos and camaraderie of the respective regimes, whether in the cramped interiors of the print shop and neighbouring laundry or in the street scenes depicting Lange's tentative courtships. The camera executes a crane, pan and descent, followed by a 360 degree turn, worthy of Hitchcock in the climactic scene of violence, and this is far from the rough and ready production the state of some prints might imply.
(The Crime of Monsieur Lange)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 80m
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry, Marcel Lévesque, Henri Guisol
Synopsis:
The editor of a failing periodical swindles his investors and seduces his employees, but when he takes advantage of the naivety of his star copywriter, the worm turns!
Review:
The keynote of this unassuming masterpiece is the Collective formed by the hero upon the providential disappearance of the boss. Suddenly, the concierge is no longer a small-minded tyrant but an amiable drunk, decisions are taken together ('entre copains') and there is money to pay everyone; the lecherous plutocrat who only takes is no more. Unlike the working class loser of Histoire d'un crime (1901), Lange goes unpunished by society, which, represented by the patrons of a frontier inn, forgives him. Thus, in an extraordinary metonymy, Renoir evokes the optimism of the Front Populaire government and its bringing together of divergent affiliations in the hope of creating a society fit for the working man. In this light, the closing shot, like that of Chaplin's Modern Times the same year, evokes the shortlived optimism soon to be overshadowed by reactionary forces and war. The cast excels at conveying the chaos and camaraderie of the respective regimes, whether in the cramped interiors of the print shop and neighbouring laundry or in the street scenes depicting Lange's tentative courtships. The camera executes a crane, pan and descent, followed by a 360 degree turn, worthy of Hitchcock in the climactic scene of violence, and this is far from the rough and ready production the state of some prints might imply.
(The Crime of Monsieur Lange)
Country: FR
Technical: bw 80m
Director: Jean Renoir
Cast: René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry, Marcel Lévesque, Henri Guisol
Synopsis:
The editor of a failing periodical swindles his investors and seduces his employees, but when he takes advantage of the naivety of his star copywriter, the worm turns!
Review:
The keynote of this unassuming masterpiece is the Collective formed by the hero upon the providential disappearance of the boss. Suddenly, the concierge is no longer a small-minded tyrant but an amiable drunk, decisions are taken together ('entre copains') and there is money to pay everyone; the lecherous plutocrat who only takes is no more. Unlike the working class loser of Histoire d'un crime (1901), Lange goes unpunished by society, which, represented by the patrons of a frontier inn, forgives him. Thus, in an extraordinary metonymy, Renoir evokes the optimism of the Front Populaire government and its bringing together of divergent affiliations in the hope of creating a society fit for the working man. In this light, the closing shot, like that of Chaplin's Modern Times the same year, evokes the shortlived optimism soon to be overshadowed by reactionary forces and war. The cast excels at conveying the chaos and camaraderie of the respective regimes, whether in the cramped interiors of the print shop and neighbouring laundry or in the street scenes depicting Lange's tentative courtships. The camera executes a crane, pan and descent, followed by a 360 degree turn, worthy of Hitchcock in the climactic scene of violence, and this is far from the rough and ready production the state of some prints might imply.