the dreamer awakeS
by Douglas Messerli
Jean Castanyer, Jacques Prévert, and Jean Renoir (screenplay), Jean Renoir (director) Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (The Crime of Monsieur Lange) / 1936
by Douglas Messerli
Jean Castanyer, Jacques Prévert, and Jean Renoir (screenplay), Jean Renoir (director) Le Crime de Monsieur Lange (The Crime of Monsieur Lange) / 1936
Jean Renoir’s 1936 film, The Crime of Monsieur Lange, is a hefty mix of a murder tale and comedy, dipped in a syrup of politics and love.
Batala, like almost every publisher I
know (including myself), constantly in debt, spends much of his time creating
new schemes to raise yet more funds, but seems permanently behind in all his
promised projects. But unlike most publishers I know, Batala, spends most of
the money on himself and wastes his days attempting to seduce every pretty
woman he encounters, at one point even raping the innocent laundry worker with
whom Charles is in love.
The failed publishing house soon is raking
in the money, based on the popularity of Lange’s populist story, as events spin
into delight for all involved. An offer to turn “Arizona Jim” into a film
brings together most of the remaining cast members as they celebrate their
success at a grand dinner party, punctuated by the Christmas songs of the drunken
concierge (Marcel Lévesque).
Certainly the villagers find him innocent, despite the bartender’s idiot
son’s demand that they call the police; and the last scene of this film shows
the couple crossing over the border, free from the ramifications of the murder.
Made during Renoir’s flirtation with and, soon, open embracement with the Communist Party (the very next year Renoir made a promotional film for the Party), it is one of the loveliest films of his early period. In this light story, there are only a couple of dark scenes, but they are among the most important. One, is the scene in which Charles’ girlfriend, having been impregnated by Battala’s rape, is giving birth: the child dies, but the mother thankfully survives. The other is the scene of the crime. As Battala, revealing himself to Lange, moves toward the right and out of the frame, Renoir pans his camera on a circular arc to the left, revealing the collective still celebrating within, before returning to the source of their previous distress, the villain finally showing his face to Lange. Battala is represented through angles, at a pitch; he is, we recall, a man who has angled and pitched his way through life. Lange, on the other hand, has been strengthened and emboldened by the circle of his friends. In this remarkable cinematic encounter, we realize that the dreamer has finally awakened. He acts to kill a man who has already long been spiritually dead.
Los Angeles, May
18, 2017
No comments:
Post a Comment