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| Pierre
Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Micheline Francey, Héléna Manson |
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Anamorphic
widescreen |
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Dolby Digital
5.1 |
|
DTS |
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Trailer(s) |
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Featurette(s) |
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Documentary |
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Audio commentary
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Deleted scenes
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Concept art
/ storyboards |
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Multi-angle
feature |
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Laura Vorzet (Micheline Francey): I
received a poison-pen letter. You realize I have to avoid you now.
French village doctor becomes target
of poison-pen letters sent to village leaders, accusing him of
affairs and practicing abortion.
 France's
most notoriously misanthropic film director caused a huge stir
with this mystery/drama produced and - briefly - released during
the French Occupation in WWII. Banned by the Nazis as inappropriately
patriotic and by the French media (both during the war and afterwards)
as anti-French, the film has now finally been recognized as a key
film in its director's body of work, and a picture that transcends
its historical context as well as its sometime notoriety.
The film's subdued, clinical examination of small-town gossip,
suspicion and scandal may have been denounced as an indictment
of French collaborators, but is universal in its cynical analysis
of human nature. The narrative can therefore thankfully be interpreted
as a metaphor as applicable to contemporary issues of social alienation
and mistrust as it is for the wartime occupation of France. |
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Available as a Region 2 disc
in France (without any subtitles or significant supplements)
and as a Region-free disc from the Criterion Collection.
The Criterion release served as the basis for this review.
The fullscreen
image is framed at its original aspect ratio of approx. 1.33:1.
There are some minor instances of damage and debris on the
print, but overall it's in surprisingly good shape, with
solid blacks and very fine greyscale levels.
The original mono sound mix, presented in Dolby Digital 1.0,
is also in decent shape, though it can sound a little harsh
and distorted here and there. Dialogues are well recorded
in any case and are perfectly audible.
 French
director Bertrand Tavernier offers his thoughts on the film
and its controversial reception in a 20-minute interview.
His talk makes for a highly informative listening experience,
though it might have been preferable to have him speaking
in his native French with subtitles rather than in such heavily
accented English, which is often very difficult to follow.
The other main supplement is a ten-minute excerpt from the
French documentary 'The Story of French
Cinema by Those Who Made It'. This vintage segment is made
up mostly of interview footage with aging French directors
who recall what it was like to work as a filmmaker during
the occupation. Clouzot is among the interviewees. Finally,
the original theatrical trailer rounds out
these extras.
Dan
Hassler-Forest
Reviewed:
July 13, 2004
Click
here for IMDB info on Le
Corbeau.
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