Clouzot has devised Le Corbeau like a steel trap, suggesting a series of minute, interlocking gestures that can ripple into actions of profound consequence at any moment.

Clouzot, always a painstaking filmmaker, has constructed a plot of fiendish intricacy whose wild twists implicate one character after another until justice is finally served.

The movie squirms with mistrust, and burrows deep.

For a film like Le Corbeau, a paranoid thriller preying on the infectious nature of mob mentality and secrets repressed by society at large, its reemergence couldn’t come at a more timely moment.