When Batala, the corrupt owner of a small printing press, disappears with the firm's capital, the employees form a collective, publishing the novels of their co-worker, M. Lange.
“Throughout the 1930s, Jean Renoir was seeking ways to make spatial-emotional relationships between his characters more intricate and extensive. M. Lange comes from the years when Renoir was engaged with the Popular Front--it is a kind of propaganda; yet it's also another Maupassant-like conte in which the gravity of Community is offset by the charming silliness of these characters, the tumbling sport of love and humor, and the amazing cinematic freshness that Renoir brings to a deliberately theatrical set. Moreover, everything is made more difficult by the fact that Batala--the pre-eminent enemy of the cooperative--is engaging, witty and ingenious. Jules Berry surveys the ranks of supporting actors with a cheerful, amused contempt that may offend the Popular Front, but which gives the film all the ambiguity of Boudu and Cordelier, other works in which Renoir regards the disruptive force with mixed feelings.
“In other words, Renoir was not just a communard, or a blind believer in groups. M. Lange bubbles with his delight in crowded frames and character actors. It has camera movements in which the spirit of the courtyard summons up its resolve to get rid of Batala. But then it gives the dying ‘priest' his magnificent last irony--as if he were an actor from the Prévert-Carné Les Enfants du Paradis. No, Renoir was good enough to know that every crowd is an uneasy container for lonely, quirky individuals.” David Thomson