La Chienne [Criterion Collection] [Blu-ray]

Director: Jean Renoir Jean Renoir

Overview

Jean Renoir's first sound film was a bitter and highly controversial psychological drama, so controversial that it was never shown in the United States until 1975, 44 years after its original French release. Maurice (Michel Simon) is a meek bank clerk trapped in a marriage with a harridan named Adele (Magdelaine Berubet). Maurice's sole pleasure in life is painting, a hobby he avidly pursues on weekends. One day, Maurice sees a woman on the street being beaten by a man; he steps in to rescue her, and strikes up a friendship with her. Maurice soon falls in love with Lulu (Janie Pelletier), unaware that she's a prostitute and that the man who was beating her is her pimp, Dede (Georges Flamant). Lulu admires Maurice's paintings, and he gives her several canvases; Lulu and Dede then invent an American artist named Clara Wood and place Clara's signature on Maurice's works before selling them to an art dealer, who is quite impressed. Maurice keeps giving money and artwork to Lulu, forgiving her even after he finds out that she's been selling paintings by "Clara Wood" that are earning high prices and enthusiastic reviews. However, Maurice is unaware that Lulu's a streetwalker or that she truly loves Dede until he catches the two in bed together; eventually, love leads to jealous violence and a tragic conclusion. While Pelletier gave a remarkable performance in La Chienne, she was unable to enjoy the film's wide acclaim; she died in an auto accident only a few weeks after shooting was completed.

Product Details

Release Date:	06/14/2016
UPC:	0715515178914
Original Release:	1931
Rating:	NR
Source:	Criterion Collection
Region Code:	A
Presentation:	[B&W]
Sound:	[Dolby Digital Mono]
Language:	English
Time:	1:36:00
Sales rank:	13,517

Special Features

Introduction to the film from 1961 by director Jean Renoir New interview with Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner New restoration of On purge bébé (1931), Renoir's first sound film, also starring Michel Simon Jean Renoir le patron: "Michel Simon," a Ninety-five minute 1967 French television program featuring a conversation between Renoir and Simon, directed by Jacques Rivette

Cast & Crew

Performance Credits

Jane Pierson	The Concierge
Romain Bouquet	M. Henriot, Legrand's Boss
Alexandre Rignault	Langelard, the Art Critic
Sylvain Itkine	DeDe's Lawyer
Henri Guisol	Amedee, the Waiter at the Cafe
Michel Simon	Maurice Legrand
Janie Mareze	Lulu Pelletier
Courme	The Colonel
Roger Gaillard	Actor
Max Dalban	Bernard
Jean Gehret	Mons. Dagodet
Magdelaine Berubet	Mme. Adele Legrand
Peirre Destys	Gustave, a Pal of DeDe
Georges Flamant	Dede
Lucien Mancini	Walstein, the Art Dealer

Technical Credits

Jean Renoir

André Girard

Jean Renoir	Director,Screenwriter
Roger Richebé	Producer
Charles David	Producer
André Girard	Screenwriter

Editorial Reviews

Jean Renoir's downbeat drama about the dangerous liaisons of a henpecked bank clerk and a hooker is one of his earliest masterpieces. An early example of the poetic realism that would become a dominant strain in the French cinema of the 1930s, it comes from a period in the director's career when he was scouring the margins of French society. Despite the noirish feel of the plot, it has little in common with the romanticism one associates with the genre, its tale of greed and cruelty permeated by a cutting bleakness. Renoir's conclusion, which offers poetic rather than strictly legal justice, was so highly controversial that the film was banned in many locales until the mid-'70s, but seems as entirely fitting now as it did then. Michel Simon, is, as always, inspired as the harried clerk and Sunday painter, his hangdog demeanor and slumping shoulders an eloquent expression of his put-upon character. Renoir's deep focus photography, an advance from that of his earlier work, is sharp and revelatory, conveying a palpable sense of the sordid locations, and the use of natural rather than post-synched sound also adds much to the film's texture.

All Movie Guide - Michael Costello