Runtime: 101 minutes
Directed by: Jean Renoir
Starring: Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, Julien Carette, Blanchette Brunoy
From: Paris Film
This is the first of two reviews to be posted here today. This film I saw on Thursday night; note that this and the one I'll post later are two movies related to one another:
“The Human Beast”, indeed. Believe it or not, this was my first Jean Renoir movie; even I know The Rules of the Game and Grand Illusion are the pictures considered to be his best, due to their status as all-time cinema classics. It was the dark plot (and boy, was this dark in tone) loosely based on an Emile Zola novel which swayed me in this direction. So was the fact that it featured several other people mentioned at length in My Journeys in French Cinema, the long documentary experienced the night before: Jean Gabin and composer Joseph Kosma. All three received plenty of love... at least for their on-screen work. Renoir apparently had some questionable “save my own skin” beliefs when World War II came around but that will never play a factor when I review one of his pictures now, or in the future.
Railroad conductors are followed, chiefly Gabin's Jacques. He suffers “seizures” due to alleged trauma over the generations due to his ancestors' love of alcohol, even if he's a teetotaler himself. Sure, kind of questionable to me (especially when it happens to occur around women), but then again I am not a medical professional. Anyhow, he falls for Simone Simon-understandable to me-the wife of a stationmaster, a stationmaster who happens to be a real jealous SOB. To be frank, there are several men seen throughout who exhibit bad behavior so “The Human Beast” (the film's title translated to English) could be a tag hung on one of several people.
The film contains several elements that made this a precursor to film noir; that did appeal although what made La Bete Humaine was more than just the story. It was the direction, the score, the cinematography, & the outstanding performances from Gabin, Simon and an actor I was less familiar with, Fernand Ledoux as that bastard stationmaster. It was just a delight to see several minutes of train footage and the conductors doing their job. While ultimately a tragic story, definitely one I was glad to experience nonetheless.
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