Storyline
A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police's description. His name is Amedee Lange, he murdered Batala in Paris. His lady friend Valentine tells the whole story : Lange was an employee in Batala's little printing works. Batala was a real bastard, swindling every one, seducing female workers of Valentine's laundry... One day he fled to avoid facing his creditors, and the workers set up a cooperative to go on working. But the plot is less important that the description of the atmosphere just before the Popular Front.
Writers: Jean Castanier, Jacques Prévert, René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry, René Lefèvre, Florelle, Jules Berry, Marcel Lévesque, Odette Talazac, Henri Guisol, Maurice Baquet, Jacques B. Brunius, Sylvain Itkine, Marcel Duhamel, Henri Saint-Isle, Pierre Huchet, René Génin, Max Morise, Charbonnier, , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,
Cast: René Lefèvre -
Amédée Lange
Florelle -
Valentine
Jules Berry -
Batala
Marcel Lévesque -
The Concierge
Odette Talazac -
The Concierge's Wife
Henri Guisol -
The Son Meunier
(as Henry Guisol)
Maurice Baquet -
Charles, The Concierges' Son
Jacques B. Brunius -
Mr. Baigneur
(as J.B. Brunius)
Sylvain Itkine -
Inspector Itkine /
Batala's cousin
Marcel Duhamel -
The Foreman
Henri Saint-Isle -
Pierre Huchet -
René Génin -
A Client at the Auberge
(as Genin)
Max Morise -
Charbonnier -
Typesetter
Taglines:
Life and love as seen in the scandals of the publishing business in the '30's.
Country: France
Language: French
Release Date: 3 Jan 1936
Filming Locations: Le Tréport, Seine-Maritime, France
Technical Specs
Runtime:
Did You Know?
Trivia:
According to film scholar Alexander Sesonske, the Catalan painter Jean Castanier (also spelled "Castanier") approached his friend Jacques Becker with the idea of a film about "a likable little world of print-shop workers and laundresses who form a cooperative" to be called Sur la Cour, which Becker would direct. Becker was much taken by the idea, but the producer who took on the project didn't trust him, and decided to offer it to the more experienced director Jean Renoir, for whom Becker had already worked as assistant director on several pictures. Becker was reportedly so furious at Renoir for directing "his" film that he refused to work as assistant director on the production, though he would later work again as Renoir's assistant on several films (e.g. La Grande Illusion (1937)), before becoming a full-time director himself. See more »
User Review
Author:
Rating: 9/10
When Batala, the owner of a failing publishing firm is presumed dead,
the inhabitants of the surrounding courtyard take over. The collective
is very successful, until Batala returns and wants to take control
again.
This is one of Renoir's films made for the Front Populaire, a cartel of
leftist parties that was briefly in power during the thirties. It's
clear where the movie's sympathies lie, but what makes Le Crime de
Monsieur Lange interesting is how it deviates from the party line: it
has a hero who dreams, not of socialism, but of the individualism of
the gunmen from the Far West, the collective is all-inclusive and
non-political, taking aboard the wealthy ne'er do well Meunier as well
as the reactionary Colonel and then there's the character of Batala
(Jules Berry): in this kind of film you would expect him to be a symbol
of exploiting capitalism for us to despise. Yes, he is cynical and
manipulative, but as a capitalist, he is a failure: he's always hiding
from creditors, thinking up hare brained schemes to keep his business
afloat and he doesn't so much exploit the poor as take advantage of
naiveté (if you sign a contract without reading it, you really
shouldn't complain about finding commercial messages in your cowboy
stories). Whatever he does, he remains a charming rogue, which adds
complexity to what could have been simpleminded propaganda. The crime
of Mr. Lange is committed against an individual, not a symbol.
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