The Crime of Monsieur Lange (1936)

Saturday, October 20th at 7:15pm

Sunday, October 21st at 4:30pm

DIRECTOR:

Jean Renoir

CAST:

Ren? Lefevre, Jules Berry

In an extraordinary case of political beliefs influencing both cinematic product and process, Renoir made this film on a shoestring budget so that he could have perfect freedom to tell his tale of collective resistance to fascism. A writer of pulp fiction cowboy novels helps to organize a cooperative to run the publishing house when the boss, played as pure evil by Jules Berry, is reported dead. The boss turns up alive, though, and Monsieur Lange must commit murder to preserve the new order. The Crime of Monsieur Lange has influenced generations of filmmakers with its cinematography and its commitment to creating a vision simultaneously poetic and political, remaining "one of the most liberating milestones of cinema history." (Village Voice)