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Licensor Information
Studio Canal
Directed by: Henri-Georges Clouzot
Featuring: Pierre Fresnay, Ginette Leclerc, Micheline Francey, Pierre Larquey, Héléna Manson, Liliane Maigné, Noël Roquevert
A mysterious writer of poison-pen letters, known only as Le Corbeau (the Raven), plagues a French provincial town, unwittingly exposing the collective suspicion and rancor seething beneath the community’s calm surface. Made during the Nazi Occupation of France, Henri-Georges Clouzot’s Le Corbeau was attacked by the right-wing Vichy regime, the left-wing Resistance press, the Catholic Church, and was banned after the Liberation. But some—including Jean Cocteau and Jean-Paul Sartre—recognized the powerful subtext to Clouzot’s anti-informant, anti-Gestapo fable, and worked to rehabilitate Clouzot’s directorial reputation after the war. Le Corbeau brilliantly captures a spirit of paranoid pettiness and self-loathing turning an occupied French town into a twentieth-century Salem.
Streaming Options
Stream
2
Release Information:
Technical Specifications
Format:
DVD
Disc:
DVD-9 (1 Disc)
Total: 1 Disc
Regions:
1/2/3/4/5/6 (DVD)
Aspect Ratio:
1.33:1
Audio Options:
French Dolby Digital Mono 1.0
Resolution:
480p/29.97
Subtitles:
English
Supplements
Types of Supplements Included: Interview, Documentary Excerpt, Booklet
- Video interview with Bertrand Tavernier, director of Coup de torchon
- Excerpts from The Story of French Cinema by Those Who Made It: Grand Illusions 1939 – 1942, a 1975 documentary featuring Henri-Georges Clouzot
- Booklet featuring an essay by film scholar Alan Williams, author of Republic of Images: A History of French Filmmaking; two articles covering the controversy around the film
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Audio
Supplements
Artwork
Release Credits
Artwork: Eric Skillman
Producer: Issa Clubb
Release Notes on Restoration
Le corbeau
Le Corbeau is presented in its original theatrical aspect ratio of 1.33:1. On widescreen televisions, black bars will appear on the left and right of the image to maintain the proper screen format. This new digital transfer was created on a Cintel Ursa Diamond Telecine from a 35mm fine-grain master. Thousands of instances of dirt, debris, and scratches were removed using the MTI Digital Restoration System and Discreet’s Smoke Systems for finalization. The soundtrack was mastered at 24-bit from a digital monaural mix, and audio restoration tools were used to reduce clicks, pops, hiss, and crackle. The Dolby Digital 1.0 signal will be directed to the center channel on 5.1-channel sound systems, but some viewers may prefer to switch to two-channel playback for a wider dispersal of the mono sound.