Overview
A tale of love, betrayal, and the struggle for justice unfolds in a small café-hotel.
Ember's analysis
- Pacing
- Brisk
- Intensity
- Strong
- Complexity
- Layered
- Violence
- Mild
- witty
- sardonic
- warm
- classic cinema night
- political film discussion
What critics said
Critics broadly regard Jean Renoir's compact crime drama as a formally inventive and politically resonant portrait of collective life, praised for its ensemble energy and poetic social atmosphere.
What sets it apart
May contain story progression spoilers
The printing workers take over Batala's business and continue production collectively after his disappearance.
Its cafe, frontier, printing shop, and laundry communities are rendered through atmospheric social observation and morally charged romance.
Valentine tells the cafe patrons the story of Lange's relationship with Batala and the cooperative before the film returns to the fugitives' predicament.
Batala's fraud, exploitation, and abandonment of creditors are opposed by the employees' cooperative reconstruction of the printing business.
Films like The Crime of Monsieur Lange, and why
La Bête humaine
Shared french poetic realism, working-class social milieu, romantic entanglements, and critique of exploitative capitalism.
Le Jour se lève
Shared prewar french cinema atmosphere, morally complex crime, populist politics, and expressive social observation.
La Grande Illusion
Shared Jean Renoir authorship, fluid ensemble storytelling, class tension, and emotionally ambivalent crime drama.
La Marseillaise
Shared cooperative ideals, romantic conflict, comic social detail, and politically charged working-class community.
Movie Details
- Director
- Jean Renoir
- Release Date
- 1936-01-24
- Runtime
- 80 min
- Rating
- 7.1 / 10 (100)
Cast
- René Lefèvre
- Florelle
- Jules Berry
- Marcel Lévesque
- Odette Talazac
- Nadia Sibirskaïa
- Henri Guisol
- Maurice Baquet
- Jacques Brunius
- Sylvain Itkine
Common questions
- What is The Crime of Monsieur Lange about?
- A fugitive printer’s crime becomes the darkly comic prelude to a workers’ cooperative and a portrait of France on the brink of political transformation.
- What is The Crime of Monsieur Lange like to watch?
- Ember's analysis rates the pacing of The Crime of Monsieur Lange as brisk, its intensity as strong and its storytelling as layered.
- Is The Crime of Monsieur Lange violent?
- Only mildly. Ember rates the violence in The Crime of Monsieur Lange as mild.
- What did critics think of The Crime of Monsieur Lange?
- Critics broadly regard Jean Renoir's compact crime drama as a formally inventive and politically resonant portrait of collective life, praised for its ensemble energy and poetic social atmosphere.
- Which films are like The Crime of Monsieur Lange?
- Films with a similar feel include La Bête humaine, Le Jour se lève, La Grande Illusion, and La Marseillaise.
- How long is The Crime of Monsieur Lange?
- The Crime of Monsieur Lange runs 80 minutes.
