Crime and Punishment (French: Crime et châtiment) is a 1935 French crime drama film directed by Pierre Chenal and produced by Michel Kagansky starring Harry Baur, Pierre Blanchar and Madeleine Ozeray.Chenal, Pierre (1935). Crime and Punishment. Général Productions. Film. It is an adaptation of the 1866 novel of the same name by Fyodor Dostoevsky. The same year a separate American film adaptation was made featuring Peter Lorre.
The film's sets were designed by the art director Aimé Bazin. Chenal rejected Bazin's original designs as too realistic and historically faithful, as he wished to create a more expressionist ambience for the film.
Plot
Cast Harry Baur as Porphyre Pierre Blanchar as Rodion Raskolnikov Madeleine Ozeray as Sonia Lucienne Le Marchand as Dounia Marcelle Géniat as Mme Raskolnikov Alexandre Rignault as Razoumikhine Sylvie as Catherine Ivanova Aimé Clariond as Loujine as Aliona Georges Douking as Nicolas Marcel Delaître as Marmeladov Catherine Hessling as Elisabeth Daniel Gilbert as Zamiatov as Polia as Lieutenant Poudre as Le Borgne as Commissioner's assistant Claire Gérard as Nastassia Léon Larive as Koch Charles Lemontier as Pestriakov
Critical reception Writing for The Spectator in 1936, Graham Greene gave the film a moderately good review, praising the direction and the camerawork particularly during the murder scene, the fidelity of the film to the text upon which it was based, and the acting of Pierre Blanchar in portraying Raskolnikov. Of Harry Bauer's portrayal of Porphyrius, Greene described the acting as "a lovely performance, the finest I have seen in the cinema this year". For Greene, the major problem with the film was that by converting it into a film in the third party instead of approaching the tale from within Raskolnikov's mind, the film was necessarily curtailed. (reprinted in:
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