|
|
Binding: DVD
Format: NTSC
Editorial Review:
Amazon.com essential video:
Little known stateside but long esteemed in Europe, The Crime of Monsieur Lange is simply one of the very greatest films directed by Jean Renoir (it was made a few years before Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game). René Lefèvre (Le Million) takes the title role of a nebbish who clerks for a penny-press publisher by day, and by night writes feverish potboilers about a Western hero named 'Arizona Jim.' Lange's encyclopedically venal boss (Jules Berry) discovers his secret and immediately starts exploiting it, as he exploits everybody and everything within range. Life sublimely imitates pulp fiction and vice versa in the brilliant screenplay by Jacques Prévert (who would later write Children of Paradise). The movie blends sociopolitical protest, tender satire, and astonishing poetry without breaking a sweat, and its climax--an amazing synthesis of theme, dramatic emotion, and inspired camerawork--is one of the transcendent moments in screen history. --Richard T. Jameson
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
Rating:  - See It! A Masterpiece!!
Here's the story of "Arizona Jim"-- well, maybe not, but the young French author of the very popular cowboy stories is our hero, and we find out if he can live up to the heroics of his dime-novel creation. This light-as-air masterpiece from Renoir needs to be given the full Criterion treatment-- it's an equal to "The Grand Illusion" and "Rules of the Game" and Clair's "Le Million," starring the same actor. All lovers of film will enjoy it.
Rating: - A jewel movie of a golden genius!
Monsieur Lange is a simple story. It deals with an execrable human being who maintains a negative tension state around an office, until the walls of the human patience finally fall down with the expected consequences.
Fiction and reality will be narrowly bounded in this original script which concerns with the honor and self steem of all human being under determined conditions. Exquisite and ravishing movie that deserves to be considered among the most representative isues of this overwhelming ... Read More
Rating:  - Poignant, funny, clever
Although much less known than his masterpieces Regle du Jeu and Grande Illusion, Renoir's Crime de M. Lange is truly a great movie. Lange, a young publishing clerk with too much imagination, pens laughably awful American Westerns in his spare time. His friends at the firm include a beautiful set of quirky and diverse characters. Together, they oppose their corrupt and lecherous boss in a none too subtle political message from Renoir. With an appropriately tender style, he paints light humor and poignant ... Read More
|
|
