The Raven or Le Corbeau PDF

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The following document contains brief cinematography notes on the film "The Raven/Le Corbeau", notes from the required readings associated with the film, and lecture notes from class material....

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The Raven/Le Corbeau Henri Georges Clouzot (France, 1943) ● Director and Year film was made: Henri Georges Clouzot (France, 1943) ● What is the setting of the film? Time and place ● What is the first view that you see? ○ Doctor with bloody hands, saying that the mother’s saved, but not the baby. And they want a grandson! ○ We saw a churchyard, suggesting death ■ End scene the killer disappears past children, suggest rebirth ● What are the names of the main characters, and notable secondary characters in the film? ○ Francios ○ Dr. Michel Vorzet + Laura Vorzet ○ Laura’s sister is Marie Corbin ○ Dr. Remy Germain (Laura having affair with?) ○ Dr. Bertrand ○ Aunt Denise Saillens is sick - her neice is Rolande ○ Dr. Delorme ○ Bursar is “Bonnevi” ○ Saillens - school teachers (Denise’s older brother) ○ Doctor in charge of the hospital has son, the deputy prosecutor, the sub-prefect, the mayor ● What is the basic plot of the film ○ 5:10 contrast of the kids running in vs. the hospital gates opening ○ Thirteen is an unlucky number - forshadowing ■ 42:15 we find out that he killed himself with the razor his mother gave him, explaining why the camera lingered on it for so long when it was introduced ○ Laura’s a real viper translates to 13 can’t sleep? ○ Laura tells Dr. Remy that she can’t see him anymore because she received a poison pen letter that probably said they knew about their affair ■ Next scene is of Remy receiving the same letter saying to stop fooling around with Vorzet’s wife or they will tell all - signed the raven ○ Dr. Vorzets makes the comment that dr conventions are only useful if they want to cheat on their wives with Parisian women ■ Laura apparently told her husband about the letter?! ○ Dr. Vorzet knows about Laura and Remy, he makes a reference 18:33 and tells him that Luara doesn’t hide anything- HA!

○ Remy is accused of “relieving vulnerable women of unwelcome burdens” by chief physician Delmore (aka abortions) ○ Delmore received a poison pen letter too! Saying “that alcohol has clouded your physician and that Remy Germain is discrediting your hospital” ○ Remy accused of trafficking morphine and blaming it on Marie ○ Dr. Vorzet references the city as being sick, having a fever, being infected 25:41 ■ We see another “epidemic” reference in 58 during town council meeting ○ He found no “Dr. Remy Germain in Grenoble” 30:32 but did find another guy named Germain ■ He is the same guy! He was the skull surgeon!!! We find out at 1:00 ○ Dr. Vorzet was engaged to his wife’s sister - Marie! Kind of sick tbh ○ 33:39 Denise is throwing herself over to Remy - something about her shoes here too mean something - and why is Rolande crying ■ Oh we find out later that he noticed a difference in alignment with the shoes that allows Denise to walk normally ■ Rolande was crying because SHE likes Remy 45:44 (her name is circled in the letter! ) ○ Someone’s niece ditches Remy as their doctor and moves to Bertrand because of the rumors of Remy being an abortionist ○ Denise walking normally at 35:23 because with SHOES on she can walk like anybody else ○ Denise knows about the RAVEN cuz she puts a statue outside his door ○ Rolande wanted 100 francs for what? ■ Something about her always holding the ball 38:00 maybe to appear young/childish? ○ “And you came anyway!” by Remy - so maybe Laura knew about Remy sleeping with Denise, but Laura decided to forgive ○ Remy mentions he sees 2 ghosts and he’s haunted 41:00 ■ Says he doesn’t like funerals 42:58 ○ Denise finds Remy with Laura at the church and thinks he’s a hypocrite for not wanting her, but yet he goes after a married woman - Denise calls Remy her lover ■ Then you see Marie pop out of know where!! ○ The town is looking for a scapegoat, and they blame Marie! “Town temperature back to normal” ■ Funny how a child was the one who bent down to pick up the letter, when everyone else ignored it during the parade

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○ The raven really hates Remy, saying they will keep going, exposing sins, until Remy is gone ○ There was a trap set for Remy at 1:00 when the woman comes in asking for an abortion (implicitly) and Remy says no immediately ■ Then the woman understands that he is the same surgeon, with a different identify from Grenoble ● He is Germain Monatte ○ He is haunted by the death of his former wife and the death of his child that a famous surgeon killed, 3 years ago, and he ended upkilling him, Dr. Monatte, too ○ Dr. Bertrand is objecting to the investigation of being the Raven ○ 1:12 Vorzet is drawing squiggles on the window while waiting - is he demented himself? What are some narrative techniques used in the film? (Voiceover, flashback, subjective perspective…) ○ 15:05 use of the camera THROUGH the peep hole ○ 31:55 we see the shadow of Dr. Vorzet walking away as he lectures Remy ○ 41:14 again we see the shadow as the actors are talking ○ 53:46 we see Laura talking to Remy with mirror reflection ■ Another mirror scene before Marie was arrested at her house ○ 58:10 we see the hypocrisy in the postal service, since the boss man says the letter is for him when in reality it is for his wife - so letters are not exactly going to the addressee What are some recurring themes, motifs or intertexts (allusions to other films, literature, culture in general) in the film? ○ What are the important questions raised by the film? ○ Take notes on the cinematography of the film: What are some remarkable stylistic features or the look of the film? How is the camera deployed (shots in perspective, framing, depth, panning, travelling shots, close-up, off-screen space)? How are the principal characters framed, especially the first time when you are introduced to them? What is the lighting like? How are the shots composed in a specific setting (mise en scène)?

Ch.2 - occupation and its discontents ● New French stated headed by Marshal Petain in 1940 when Germany occupied France ○ Petain assisted in the Germans in exploiting French industry headed in Vichy ○ Petain really had little real political autonomy ● 1942 French became a police state ○ When freed from allies in 1944, those french citizens who helped the Germans were brought to account, and Petain sentenced to life ● French cinema during occupation was regulated by ○ unoccupied zone by the Vichy government under Raoul Ploquin ○ Occupied zone by Goebbel’s propaganda ministry (Germany) answered to Continental Films ● Banning of foreign films except German and Italian ceased work in France, so career opportunities for those prepared to work under German control were better than it was in the 1930s - including Clouzot ○ Violent acts are highly stylised presented for comic effect - well-packaged entertainment skilfully calculated to distract French audiences from the grimmer realities of life under German occupation ● Le Corbeau ○ Inquisitorial ssatires that deride sacrosanct icons of Vichy ideology (Church, family, youth) that escatped Vichy censorship ○ Perceived as anti-French propaganda ○ Clouzot banned from the film industry when liberty was restored in 1944 because he was deemed to be a German collaborator, since he was an executive for Continental, not just a director ○ Satirical account of a small town, motivated the self-interest and willing to sacrifice the most vulnerable ■ Allegory of French society and the failure of its elites ○ Keyhole shot - done by Clouzot first in L’Assassin habite au 21 ■ Used to show voyeurism and spying! ○ Detective stories ■ Avoid issues such as psychological plausibility or social comment by posing an enigma and offering amusing confrontations

● Le Corbeau p.38 ○ Satirical and allegorical melodrama, expose hypocrisy

○ St.-Robin - “small town, here or elsewhere” apparently in the present ○ As with all feature films imposed by occupation, there is no overt reference to war, occupation, or political issues. . . ○ Atmosphere of suspicion, hysteria, and persecution ■ The truth of the writer is less important than finding their identity to stop their malevolent efforts ○ Central theme - linked directly to recognisable and controversial social reality, tension between individual liberty (like with Laura and Marie!), collective responsibility ■ This is similar to how French people sent letters to occupation authorities for denouncing resistance activists, and received rewards ■ At liberation collaborators fell prey themselves to anonymous accusations ○ Denunciation and invasion of personal privacy defining features of totalitarian and dictatorial regimes ■ Le Corbeau is questioning the authoritarian tendencies of wartime authorities ○ Vichy government made a virtue out of spying while simultaneously holding to the triumvirate of the National Revolution (work, family, patriotism) ● 3 explanations why the film was not stifled at birth ○ 1. Subject predated the WW2 ○ 2. The unusual status and independence of Continental as a film company ○ 3. Clouzots own position of influence within the company ● Louis Chavance original script for the film had been written in 1937 inspired by Dr. Locard’s account in 1933 ● The films critics ○ Accused of moral depravity by Right Wing ○ Accrued of anti-patriotic betrayal by Left Wing ○ Accused of being anti-French propaganda, an illustration that France was rotten ○ Rejected by the church for anti-clerical tone ■ “Slutty woman, abortion, atheisitic profession of faith from main character, suicide, murder, bad language, oaths” ■ Taboo subjects: abortion, disease, religious faith, sexuality ○ The communist party, the Gaullits (french patriotism), and Church all represent conflicting forces of ideology ■ The film deliberately satirises the incoherence and double standards of authority

○ Kessel: Mercilessly exploding the divisions within French society is hardly likely to encourage resistance against the forces which have helped create them ● The Raven - plot ○ The letter writer is Dr Vorzet! Confirm that psychiatrists are madder than their patients ○ Viewers mix up the characters relationships, because the film likes to distort ○ Doctor in charge of the hospital and deputy prosecutor shown meeting together to find the letter writer ■ They are in a rivalry ■ When the letters reach epidemic, the son is removed from post ○ Marie a frustrated spinster, treated cancer patient with callous brutality, stealing his morphine ○ We’re are left wondering why they wrote letters that accused themselves ■ Since hundreds of letters sent, it is indeed likely that there are several imitators ○ Germain reconciled by these troubling events to accept human weakness and union with Denise ○ Germain and Vorzet revealed to have dual identity ■ Germain - sets civic duty before personal affection, casting himself as a tragic hero ■ Vorzet - less self righteous, more relativistic moral position ○ Patient number 13 suicide - real victim in all this ■ Sick patient taken as a symbol of France, betrayed and neglected by all those whose weaknesses and quarrels lead them to fail in their civic duty ■ Parallel incident when little girl tries to drown herself when letter reveals she is illegitimate ○ Germain vs. Vorzet claiming that their view leads to salvation, just like political figures Petain vs. de Gaulle, saying their leadership lead to French salvation ■ Vorzet - acts like an upright member, but he is the principal source of evil (just like Petain campaign of moral regeneration and policy of collaboration, that led to abasement to Nazism) ■ Germain - as an outsider he is suspected, by he is in fact honourably serving a community, like de Gaulle who was the only important leader to call for resistance and forced to England exile

○ Film strives towards postive resolution, of sentimental and melodramatic variet, placing the personal and private over profession and social domains ■ Ex. when Denise tells Germain to look at her, she can feel things, she knows that Laura is innocent - just knows it ■ Ex. Germain opens the window to allow the noise of children back in ○ Ambiguities explain why some think the film is collaborationist and Vichy ■ Author says the film has insight into the vices and virtues of Vichy France ● The Raven techniques ○ mise en scène - highly contrasted light and shadow, distorted camera angles, defining features of film noir ■ Marie slanted angles when running from mob ○ Lighting and spatial positioning suggest dominance of characters or distortion that heighten claustrophobic oppressive atmosphere ■ Like when Vorzet is bidding bye to Germain and we see his large shadow, a second self whose moik civility doesn’t conceal its intrusive menace ○ Chiaroscuro symbolism by swaying electric light bulb...