Le crime de Monsieur Lange

Jean Renoir is one of the classic French directors and films like La Grande Illusion and The Human Beast show that. This film, The Crime of Monsieur Lange, is not one of the man's best films; but it's still a more than adequate example of French film-making in the 1930's. Adapted from a story by Jean Castanyer (the same man that wrote the story for Renoir's earlier film 'Boudu Saved from Drowning'), The Crime of Monsieur Lange tells the story of a man and woman that bed down in a hotel for the night. The man is recognised by the patrons as being the same man that killed another man, but before they can turn him in; the woman decides to tell the story of exactly why her man is a murderer and then let the customers decide whether or not he should be convicted. This premise offers an interesting base for a film, as themes of justice and morality can easily be tied in; but this is the film's main problem. While Renoir presents the story behind the murder in an interesting way, we never really get into whether or not the protagonist should be convicted.

The film is left open ended, probably so that the audience can 'make their own minds up' about the events; but this idea is never really explored and it's a shame because it could have presented a very interesting backbone for the movie. Quite what Renoir's intentions were for this film, therefore, are rather quite muddled. The film is never exciting enough to be considered a straight thriller, the story isn't deep enough for it to be a deep and complex drama, and we're not presented with enough themes for it to be viewed as a cross section of justice and morality. Jean Renoir seems to have been too much of a complex man to have simply intended this film as a quick Saturday-morning style drama, and themes of living in France at the time aside, that's pretty much what this is. The actual drama in the film is good, however, with the actors giving life to their characters through realistic acting. Renoir's direction is as assured and as vivacious as ever, and you really get the impression with this man that he really puts his back into making films. This certainly isn't a bad movie; but it's not great either. Most people, like me, would probably expect a little more from Renoir...but it's still worth seeing.

It takes a while to locate one's bearings in this work, although that speaks to its emotional and thematic complexity. The film has the constant pace and vivacity and glee that is (stereotypically?) associated with Renoir - the film is something of a romantic whirl, with the interconnections of men and women are beguilingly dramatized in all their fleeting glory. Even the scenes with the wicked boss have an initial joie de vivre. Lange himself retains a restrained calm at the heart of it all - until he comes to illustrate the normal man who takes a desperate, self-sacrificing stand for the good of others. Although idealistic, his action resonates when offset against the explicitly cartoonish heroism of the Arizona Jim character (which we see embodied in some epically corny tableaux), and the impact thrives from being based in a muscular evocation of left-wing collectivist sympathies (a strand that comes over heavily in the almost idyllic scenes of things after the demise of the capitalist - with workers happy and lovers unfettered; although I found the very end of the film a bit puzzling).

It's a crime drama about unprincipled capitalism set in 1936 in Paris, France. Paul Batala (Jules Berry) is an unprincipled owner of a low-brow publishing company who exploits his female staff sexually and everyone financially. Mild-mannered Amédée Lange (René Lefèvre) works for Batala but also writes Western short stories featuring Arizona Jim. Valentine Cardès (Florelle), the head of the company's laundry, pursues Lange romantically. Batala is in debt to Mr. Meunier (Henri Guisol) and flees Paris on a train that experiences a crash. Batala then fakes his death by changing identities with a priest (Edmund Beauchamp).

The film opens with Lange and Cardès fleeing, and we learn Lange is charged with Batala's murder. Cardès tells the story of events at the inn near the border where they are recognized. Her narrative includes the period after Batala's initial "death," when the publishing company established a successful workers' cooperative that sells Arizona Jim stories. The movie's ending portrays the inn's patrons' decision whether to turn Lange over to the police.

"Le Crime de Monsieur Lange" is a simple story with a clear economic perspective. Social attitudes vary considerably from what Hollywood could portray at the same time. The film is primarily a period piece illustrative of pre-war French cinema. Florelle and Jules Berry are the strongest characters.

This film, shot in less than a month, contains some of the pleasures in Renoir's oeuvre. The fluid camerawork and the social satire have here, as elsewhere, rewards to yield, culminating in the 360 degree shot in the finale. Maybe the rashness accounts for flaws in the one-dimensional characters and the not so successful dramaturgy but the social messages about cooperatives, debt and exploitation are conveyed well.

It's not funny but its upbeat yet conflicted message of the hippie dream - 1930s style, plays with your emotions ultimately leaving you happier and more optimistic than before. It's not a simple story but it's put together so beautifully that it's easy to follow.

The picture this paints is of a mad muddled melange of dozens of colourful characters that somehow live as one giant happy utopian family. Once you've got used to the subtitles you're sucked into that world. Compared with American and English... and indeed most French films from this era what's remarkable about this is just how natural and realistic it is.

Besides 'Batala', the larger than life anti-hero, everyone else is just ordinary but not dull, they've all got real personalities, they're the sort of people we think we'd know if we were around then. M Lange himself, played by Rene Lefervre is convincing and endearing as the simple minded dreamer who writes the escapist Wild West comic stories. Stunningly beautiful Florelle is Lange's girlfriend who in this utopian world is not just subservient eye-candy, she's as much a part of society as any man. It's refreshing to see such an enlightened attitude in a 30s movie.

Everything about this fast-moving story seems so natural that you feel you're part of it. It's somewhere you can go to relax. M Renoir is brilliant at making his celluloid world where one man's fantasy awakens his neighbours' sense of community feel so real to us. By evoking a manufactured nostalgia and a desire for shared ideals he makes us, the audience feel like we're part of his story, which is our story. Like most good story tellers, Renoir leaves little gaps in the plot for us to insert our own characters into. This makes this very engaging.