Radio Corbeau (1989)
Directed by Yves Boisset

Film Review

In the 1970s, Yves Boisset was one of France's most politically engaged mainstream filmmakers, broaching important subjects such as the Algerian War (R.A.S.) and racism in present day France (Dupont Lajoie) with a refreshing rigour and directness.  He was also a superlative director of hard-edged thrillers, particularly those with an astute political slant, such as the exemplary neo-polar Le Juge Fayard dit Le Shériff (1977).  By the mid-1980s, Boisset's cinema was beginning to appear outdated and so he migrated to French television, where he flourished for another couple of decades in a surprising wide range of genres.  Radio Corbeau was the last but one film Boisset made for the cinema, effectively a remake of the Occupation era film Le Corbeau directed by H.G. Clouzot, another maestro of the thriller genre, but updated to reflect the director's personal concerns about the current state of his country.

Although it is based on a novel by Yves Ellena, Radio Corbeau is unmistakably an Yves Boisset film, a typically mordant piece of social commentary dressed up as a fairly routine policier, the mundane crime investigation narrative rescued from terminal ennui by some skilfully lobbed grenades of black humour (the director's trademark).  There is an obvious point of connection with the work of the director's more illustrious contemporary Claude Chabrol, with the film's wryly disturbing portrayal of a typical French town riven with hidden tensions and prejudices that threaten the stability of an entire community.  In a similar vein to Clouzot's earlier film, the most worrying aspect of Radio Corbeau is how easily enmities flare up in response to the malicious tittle-tattle that is broadcast over the airwaves.  Mistrust and suspicion spread like wildfire and soon the entire town appears to be on the bring of anarchy, with just about everyone clamouring for blood.  If you reflect on the riots across France in the following decade (fuelled by racial tensions), the film now appears to be eerily prescient.

Worthy though the film is in many respects, Radio Corbeau does not represent Boisset at his best.  His mise-en-scène lacks the inspired touch of his earlier thrillers, and with a lacklustre screenplay that veers too often towards outright caricature the film cannot help appearing shallow and poorly paced.  Both of the lead actors - Claude Brasseur and Pierre Arditi - seem at first to be somewhat miscast, but they ultimately redeem themselves with the authenticity of their acting - there is much about the relationship between Inspector Duval and the journalist Paul Maurier that is left unsaid in the script, but which the actors convey so palpably in their few scenes together.  Jean-Claude Dreyfus, Édith Scob and Evelyne Bouix are all welcome additions to the top-notch cast, although all are criminally underused and melt too easily into an uninspiring ensemble consisting of stock characters that for the most part fail to ring true.  Flawed though it is as a mystery-thriller, Radio Corbeau still passes muster as an astute piece of social commentary, and Boisset would continue in this darkly satirical vein for his next (and final) cinematic offering, La Tribu (1991).

Film Synopsis

Situated in the Jura mountains, Saint-Meyrand would seem to be an idyllic French town.  Yet beneath the surface calm there are long-standing antagonisms that are being nourished by a series of shocking announcements from a new pirate radio station that calls itself Radio Corbeau.  Each day, the inhabitants of this apparently cosy community attend their radios to listen in on the latest scandalous revelations concerning the town's most prominent individuals.  Vinatier, a wealthy farmer, is forced to flee when his insurance scam is exposed.  Gerfaut, the owner of a factory that employs many of the town's population, is accused of planning mass redundancies.  Faber, the town's mayor, is implicated in a corruption affair that could well cost him the next election.  And Radio Corbeau's victims are not limited to the local bigwigs.  Lesser mortals, such as the owner of a popular bar and a local butcher are also targeted.

The question on everyone's mind is: whose is the voice behind Radio Corbeau?  As police inspectors Duval and Bouthier conduct their investigation, one man stands out as the likely culprit - Paul Maurier, an award winning television journalist who moved to the area a few years before to take over the editorship of a newspaper.  Could it be that Maurier is masquerading as the mysterious Corbeau in order to increase his newspaper sales?  The police's attempts to capture the Corbeau whilst he is in the act of transmitting his messages are constantly thwarted - as if he had fore-knowledge of what the police are planning.  As the casualties mount, the Corbeau continues to evade capture - until Bouthier makes a discovery that will soon lead to the unmasking of the malignant trouble causer...