Le crime de Monsieur Lange (1936)

User Rating:

7.7/10   

Director:

Jean Renoir

Writers:

Jean Castanyer (story)
Jacques Prévert (adaptation)

Release Date:

24 January 1936 (France)

Genre:

Comedy | Crime | Drama

Plot:

A man and a woman arrive in a cafe-hotel near the belgian frontier. The customers recognize the man from the police's description...

Plot Keywords:

Black Comedy | Belgium | Murder | Character Name In Title

Cast

René Lefèvre	...	Amédée Lange
Florelle	...	Valentine
Jules Berry	...	Batala
Marcel Lévesque	...	The Concierge
Odette Talazac	...	The Concierge
Henri Guisol	...	The Son Meunier
Maurice Baquet	...	Charles, The Concierges' Son
Jacques B. Brunius	...	Mr. Baigneur (as J.B. Brunius)
Sylvain 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

Also Known As:

The Crime of Monsieur Lange (USA)

Runtime:

80 min | USA:77 min

Country:

France

Language:

French

Color:

Black and White

Aspect Ratio:

1.37 : 1

Sound Mix:

Mono

Certification:

UK:PG (video rating)

Filming Locations:

Le Tréport, Seine-Maritime, France

Company:

Films Obéron

Movie Connections:

Featured in Jean Renoir: Part One - From La Belle Époque to World War II (1993) (TV)

Soundtrack:

Au jour, le jour, a la nuit, la nuit

More Than Propaganda

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.