La Tete d'un Homme (1933)

 Julien Duvivier's "La Tete d'un Homme"


When watching Julien Duvivier's 1933 French crime mystery, "La Tate d'un Homme," I was struck by something. I noticed just how similar the film is to Akira Kurosawa's 1963 film "High and Low." Obviously, they are two wildly different films and both come from differing source materials. Duvivier's "La Tete d'un Homme" is adapted from the 1931 novel "A Battle of Nerves" by Georges Simenon, while Kurosawa's "High and Low" is adapted from a 1959 novel "King's Ransom" by Ed McBain. However, I still noticed thematic similarities between the two films nonetheless.

Both films find a medical student who is so embittered and distraught over the vast economic gaps between the wealthy and poor that they commit a hideous crime and blackmail a powerful industrialist. Both films also find a detective (or group of detectives) as they sleuth-fully track down the medical student. Where the two films differs seems to iterate the two varying temperaments of disparate generations. While in Kurosawa's more complex "High and Low," the wealthy industrialist is no 'bad' guy and the awful fallout from this event is not indicative of his character, but rather the system that he operates in. However in Duvivier's "La Tate d'un Homme," the 'bad' industrialist commits suicide and the 'bad' medical student get run over while fleeing police. In the French film, those that committed 'bad' acts are punished, while the 'good' detective has a successful case solved.

That being said, there is still a complex uncertainty that lies at the heart of Duvivier's film. While watching, I did feel empathy for the foreign medical student, despite the reptilian and ghoulish features that the filmmakers cast on him. The film's detective is merely a Sherlock Holmes-esque stereotype meant to act as the cold, calculating inevitability of justice. However, the darker shades from the wealthy and poor makes you ponder the economic differences between the two. This is even more paramount given the Great Depression taking place globally when the film was released.

"La Tete d'un Homme" is a great detective story with a great bit more to chew on than meets the eye. Despite its similarities to Akira Kurosawa's 1963 masterwork "High and Low," the film offers a unique insight into the psyche of French society in 1933.

 


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