| Welcome to In The Balcony. We hope you enjoy your visit. You're currently viewing our forum as a guest. This means you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use. If you join our community, you'll be able to access member-only sections, and use many member-only features such as customizing your profile, sending personal messages, and voting in polls. Registration is simple, fast, and completely free. Plus, you'll be eligible for the monthly $1 million prize. (Not really.) Join our community! If you're already a member please log in to your account to access all of our features: |
| The Ongoing Renoir Investigation.; an ever-growing blog | |
|---|---|
| Tweet Topic Started: Aug 29 2007, 02:31 PM (248 Views) | |
| panzer the great & terrible | Aug 29 2007, 02:31 PM Post #1 |
|
Mouth Breather
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Jean Renoir's greatest period came between 1936 and 1939, with five major productions in a row, all on DVD: Les Bas fonds/The Lower Depths (1936), which I'll review soon, La Grande Illusion (1937), La Marseillaise (1938), La Bete Humaine/The Human Beast (1938), and La Regle du Jeu/Rules of the Game. Of these, La Bete Humaine was the biggest moneymaker of all Renoir's films. It had Jean Gabin, the top French star of the time, paired with the gorgeous Simone Simon, and it came from a well-known novel by Emile Zola. The scenario could have been written by Griffith. Gabin is a railroad engineer and the son of Gervaise, the alcoholic heroine of another Zola novel (and another French movie classic). He loves his locomotive first, and a young girl from his home town second. But his family's dissipated past has "tainted his blood." He dares not take a drink for fear of becoming violent, and sometimes becomes violent anyway. Then there's the insanely jealous station manager and his wife, Simone Simon (whom we first see holding a cat in reference to one of Renoir's father's paintings). He's driven to murder by an incident in her remote past, and that makes her afraid of him, so she's driven into Gabin's arms, the two start drinking wine together, and that's all you'll hear from me. What fascinates here are first, the details of railroading, brilliantly shot from every imaginable angle, including some that look kinda dangerous for the cameraman, and rhythmically (but not TOO rhythmically) edited. You understand Gabin's love for his train. Second, the fact that every character is fully drawn and has human reasons for what he or she does; and third, that the inevitable tragedy in no way contradicts Renoir's essentially benign humanist view of human nature. I don't know how he does it, but he does. They had a real train and real tracks, and that really is Gabin at the throttle. There are no trick shots or back projections; it's all real. The great Claude Renoir's photography is as accomplished as you'll see in any Thirties film from any country, and the DVD seems to come from a first-generation 35mm master. It's so pretty you want to rip the images off the screen, frame 'em and hang 'em on the wall. Sound is virtually flawless. The extras are fun, especially the TV interview with Renoir. Panzer's highest recommendation. This was the film just before Rules of the Game, and it shows. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
![]() |
|
| panzer the great & terrible | Sep 16 2007, 12:09 PM Post #2 |
|
Mouth Breather
![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]()
|
Only Jean Renoir could turn Gorky's grim play THE LOWER DEPTHS into a feel-good buddy picture. There's this Baron who gets thrown out of the army for stealing to support his gambling habit. He takes his last grubstake to the tables and loses everything, then goes home to End It All, but he can't find his gun because professional thief Jean Gabin has broken into his house to rob him and the first thing he picked up was the gun. The two of them start talking and before you know it they are best friends. The Baron knows that to repo men are coming the next day, so he gives Gabin some of his cool stuff. On his way home Gabin gets busted for having things he obviously can't afford. The cops send for the Baron to press charges, but the Baron makes sure Gabin gets off. So the Baron moves into the flophouse where Gabin lives and plot #2 gets cranked up. Plot #2 is a complicated love quadrangle that I won't go into. I had recently watched the Kurosawa version of the play, and the two movies couldn't be more different. The Kurosawa is an icy comedy about how pitiable mankind is, but the Renoir is a celebration of life, but a realistic one, and has instantly become one of my all-time favorites. The relationship between the two men is believable and touching, and the relationship between the two lovers is too, and the show ends by quoting the ending of MODERN TIMES. Puts a lump in your throat. I watched the DVD from Netflix and immediately ordered it. It's so great to be an old fort and still finding stuff this cool! Panzer's highest recommendation. Five stars. Six stars. All the stars. Next will be LA MARSEILLAISE. |
| Life is just a bowl of cherries, it's too mysterious, don't take it serious... | |
![]() |
|
|
|
| « Previous Topic · Dans le Balcon · Next Topic » |





![]](http://z2.ifrm.com/static/1/pip_r.png)




12:47 AM Jul 11