Le Crime de Monsieur Lange

Classic early French cinema, Renoir using black comedy to get over his picture of working-class solidarity. A new group of workers take over the running of the publishing firm where they work after the dishonest boss (Jules Berry) leaves without warning. Their cooperative venture is successful, but trouble is inevitable when the boss returns and expects to retake control of the now-profitable operation: which is the reason that the unassuming Monsieur Lange, a writer of pulp Westerns, is forced into the eponymous crime.

Although the political elements of the film are not so immediately relevant to the modern viewer as they were to the Popular Front supporters of the time, the film is remarkable for other reasons. It was shot in an astounding 25 days, and is notable for the opposing roles, one good, one evil, played by René Lefevre and Berry, and for the 360-degree pan performed at the film's climactic moment.

It is a film with considerable charm, and this combined with Renoir's artistry make it well worth seeing.

Review by Iain Lang
Taken from EUFS Programme 1995-96