Louis Chavance

"Le Courbeau" was Henri-Georges Clouzot's masterpiece. He paid dearly for having been instrumental in bringing it to the screen. At the time it went into production, an occupied France was not the best place to be. Because Clouzot's picture was made through German owned Continental Films, with its distribution rights, proved to cause the opposite effect than what the director wanted. He paid a high price for daring to present his tale about a page of shame in French History. Not only did the show more left despised this work, but Clouzot was also criticized by the Vichy government of the ultra right. show less