Amazon.com essential video

Jean Renoir's beautiful 1951 film (based on Rumer Godden's novel) about an English family's life in Bengal is a deeply moving experience. Told from the point of view of an adolescent girl who falls in love, experiences a tragic loss, and sees the cycle of existence played out against a mystic portrait of India, the film takes Renoir's natural humanity to an even greater level. Shot by the director's brother, Claude Renoir, (both of them the sons of painter Auguste Renoir), The River is as magnificent to look at as to feel in one's heart. --Tom Keogh ... Read more

Reviews (7)

Artistic Understatement
How wonderful are the rhythms, color, and imagery as they flow lyrically along - man, beast, spreading tree. They succeed one another like the film's central metaphor, the living continuum, the river of life. The lyricism, however, tends to flatten out the story's sparse drama in a way that requires some patience. In fact, these rhythms are the point -- life, death, renewal -- all beautifully photographed in great splashes of technicolor. To contemporary audiences, a film like this must seem an import from an alien world, and I suspect it was not commercial even on release -- who else in the US but an art house would show it! The story is slender and idealized, set indelibly in India, and likely the author's fond reminiscence of childood under the British protectorate. Except for the boy's muted passing, not much really happens.The only conflict involves three girls competing for a youngish war veteran, and it's a measure of Renoir's approach that the competition never interferes with their friendship. Everyone, it seems, behaves with admirable restraint, even the dutiful servants, all of which serves to somewhat prettify the British presence. Nevertheless, this is one of those movies that creeps up on you. It's only afterwards, when the images have had a chance to linger and luminesce, that their sum total registers and you know you've seen something lasting. I, for one, am glad Renoir defied the rule and did not use pretty people; that would only have emphasized plot over theme, and individual over universal. Moreover, I wish more ordinary looking people appeared in movies, especially from Hollywood. Finding the unusual in the usual is the kind of thing I believe this movie was trying to bring out, while learning that lesson would do much to heal our celebrity-driven culture. This is a Renoir classic and demonstrates once again, amidst a slam-bang world, what can be done on the plane of artistic understatement.

Too Good
The film is a narration by a adolescent who is in love and has competition. Very well done and ofcourse the film also depicts life in Bengal/India and other cultural issues in a very subtle way. Just marvelous. Very well presented.

The failure of technology.
It's an irony that because of the way the site is designed I cannot get my review online without rating the movie. The fact is those 5 stars don't mean a thing 'cause I haven't seen the movie. Why is that? Because there is just no DVD available of this wonderful movie. So you can read the finest reviews of these masters - Satyajit Ray, Truffaut, the Iranian greats, but it's all in vain. Unless some enterprising businessmen thinks about putting them onto the DVD format, the cinema lover is doomed to watch Hollywood and all its essential crudities till kingdom come.

The failure of technology.
If my only crime is that I own a DVD player and not a VHS player and most of these great movies are yet not made available on DVD when all sort of trash gets freely circulated on DVD, I say what's the point of such technological innovations? Sure, I want to see The River; why just that, I also want to see all of Ray, De Sica's Shoeshine, Renoir's La Regle du Jeu et al. I am hoping there are some intrepid, enterprising entrepreneurs out there who can sort this problem out.

One of the Most Charming and Beautiful films ever made.
I feel sorry for those who haven't seen this film.

I feel sorry for those who, having seen it, haven't yet come to fully enjoy it. It's one of the greatest pleasures in cinema.

Forget what you know about Jean Renoir, director. Forget even THE SOUTHERNER. THE RIVER, as a film, stands alone.

Some find it meaningless, and unworthy of the director. I think they don't get the point. They are over-judging, and in the wrong direction. Perhaps they are reluctant to betray true feelings ( I make this review anonymous, don't I?), or want to be considered among the set of "serious film thinkers..."

You don't have to be a teenage girl/ bluestocking to appreciate it. Anyone who ever tried to keep a private thought to themselves in their adolescence can relate to this film.

It is also in English. It's not in French. No eye-muscle challenging subtitles. So don't be turned off by the director's name.

And it's in delicious color. Perhaps it offers too many sweet pleasures to indulge, and thus scares off viewers with its multiplicity of delights. To fail to appreciate such pleasures is to miss a large part of living in this short, brief life. Life isn't just knowing how to punch someone in the nose, wear black t-shirts and shaved heads, or hide behind tattoos and metal jewelry embedded in your face...

The simplicity of the film has alienated some. It shouldn't. Simplicity is often misinterpreted. Back of simplicity, there can be all the meaning and value in the world.

There is a caveat, however. This film features a death in the family. Anyone who has experienced the death of someone significant in their life possibly ought to skip this film for now. Many art film directors are unintentionally effective as Ingmar Bergman at 'hitting you where you live.'

I can't understand the complaint that the characters are some- how "physically unappealing." Perhaps the viewer needs to have his TV or VCR or whatever adjusted. Perhaps he's watching a faded color analog print from the 80's that has made its way through too many dubious VCRs...

I recall the sister of the main character. She was rather fetching in appearance, I thought. And if I remember aright, this film features some of the most beautiful Indian women I've ever seen. Perhaps the customer/critic was avoiding being accused of the fetish of finding exotic types compelling in any way. However, enough of externals ...

"If this film doesn't touch your heart, you haven't got one..."--and if you are not very, very glad you saw it, I will be very surprised. Particularly is this so if you are fond of the pre-1960 narrative type, largely non-abstract films.

Part of this film is documentary in style. These segments are so colorful, however, as to endure repeated viewings. You'll hardly be making gymnastic leaps for the remote and its fast-forward features. In fact, you may look 'forward' to reviewing the documentary segments over and over again. They may even prove to become your favorite parts of the film. You don't have to be an anthropologist to enjoy and even love them. Alternatively, you don't have to have an untrained and/ or fashionable 'hang-up' for primitive cultures to love these colorful stretches of footage.

I have seen this film several times. With a love of narrative color film, you would do well to own a copy of this. I could easily imagine someone being perfectly glad to view this jewel about every six months or so, forever. They'll probably want to do it more often.

Yes, it is just that valuable, charming, and enduring. Like Ozu's TOKYO STORY, Vigo's comical L'ATALANTE, the Archer's BLACK NARCISSUS, etc. Certainly plenty of tasteful charm for a night's viewing. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

One of cinema's immortal, and most provocative, comedies.
The opening scenes of 'Boudu Saved from drowning' contrast the urbane bookseller Lestingois with the hirsute titular tramp. The former presides over a haven of super-civilisation on the banks of the Seine, surrounded by rare books, paintings, statues, the best that the best minds have thought and created. he is using the skill absorbed from this culture, however, to beguile his impressionable mistress, the young maid Anne-Marie - in this case classical rhetoric not only disguising basic natural urges, but actually replacing them, Lestingois' appetite more evident that his capabilities.

Boudu, on the other hand, is first seen in a park, caressing his dog, singing snatches of song, linked to the natural and populist. These two collide when Lestingois rescues a suicidal Boudu, and invites him into his home, where he is soon smashing plates, smearing shoe polish over the satin and spiiting in rare Balzac novels. The movement of the film seems to be towards the greater bourgeoisification of Boudu - new clothes, Samsonian hair cut, ennobling by money and marriage. But the film actually revolves around sex. The film starts with a Greek tableau of Pan chasing a nymph, cut to Lestingois and Anne-Marie. Boudu begins replacing his benefactor, not by accumulating bourgeois habits, but by displaying the sexual prowess the self-styled Priapus Lestingois lacks (the latter has no children).

70 years on, 'Boudu' remains a shockingly funny comedy, provocatively hostile to the soul-stultifying deceptions, compromises and resignations of the bourgoisie. If this makes the film sound aridly polemical, than you don't know Renoir - the slouchy, amused Lestingois is the most sympathetic character in the movie, cultured, tolerant, benevolent - his crime, if you like, it the bourgeois expectation that the rescued Boudu should be grateful and hence dependent. Even the women reveal depths beyond the initial caricatures - Mme Lestingois is given a beautiful epiphany, lying dejected on her bed, suddenly awoken by street music, taken back somewhere we've no access to. Concepts of death and rebirth, heaven and hell, destruction and continuity recur, filtered through the overarching metaphor of the river.

The film is a strange mixture of the antique and the modern. The documentary-like aspects of the film, the real-location shooting of pre-war Paris, its parks, cafes, pageants, music, rivers, boats etc., are ironically the most 'dated', in the sense that they capture a world long since vanished. The theatrical artificality of the film, by contrast, is the clue to its modernity - the division of the narrative into music-signalled acts; the farce-like plot; the complex composition of domestic and exterior space. The film's motifs revolve around spectators looking at unfolding dramas, windows framing action and dividing characters from life. There is a remarkable sequence in the park, where a plein-air location is turned into a vast, endless stage set, through which characters wander in and out. Far from restricting the cinematic quality of the film, this theatricality liberates it, opening up the rigidity of the frame, of one viewpoint, intimating whole worlds beyond it.

These tensions - between civilisation and nature, high and popular culture, sympathy and satire, ancient and modern, documentary and theatre - result in one of Renoir's, and cinema's, greatest films. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Deanna Durbin in a movie that has it all!
This is, in my opinion, one of Deanna Durbin's most underrated screen vehicles (the other being "Something in the Wind"). "The Amazing Mrs. Holliday" is a film that has it all - action, suspense, drama, comedy, romance and (with Deanna on board) music! This was Deanna's most dramatic film to date. As a young woman forced to flee China with eight young war orphans, Deanna shows what a talented actress she actually is. She also sings some beautiful songs (including "Mighty Lak' a Rose"). Throw in Barry Fitzgerald for some comedy, and Edmond O'Brien for romance and you have a wonderful little film that is sure to brighten your view of the world! Overall, one of Deanna's greatest pictures.

Deanna tries to find a way to care for eight war orphans.
This is a most unusual Deanna Durbin film. In this movie, Deanna is a missionary returning from China with eight war orphans. The movie is partially nararrated by Deanna herself as she recounts the story of how she found the orphans and brought them to America. It is very touching although it has a few comic twists. Barry Fitzgerald is his delightful self and causes her no end of trouble. In the end she is the proud mama of NINE war orphans and has found them a very charming daddy. We really enjoyed this film even though it wasn't Deanna's usual style. It showed us that she was certainly capable of playing a more serious role. ... Read more

Amazon.com

French Cancan is quite possibly the greatest backstage movie ever. Paris, the 1880s: a natty, middle-aged nightclub impresario named Danglard (a sublime performance by French superstar Jean Gabin) is between engagements, and liaisons, at the moment. But he has a vision of reviving the cancan, the high-kicking dance that has fallen into disuse. He becomes convinced that he can lead this revival by casting a laundress (Françoise Arnoul) in his new show at a club called the Moulin Rouge. While a blissful entertainment in every way, French Cancan is also director Jean Renoir's examination of the imaginative process of turning life into art. (Renoir has some venerated film classics to his credit, including Grand Illusion and The Rules of the Game, but this one can stand right up there with them.) Danglard is clearly an alter ego for the great director, and his opening-night speech to his reluctant star, in which he declares that nothing is more important than what happens on stage, might be Renoir's own statement on art. The final cancan sequence is an explosion of color and movement, as all of Danglard's machinations come to flower; it's been known to leave revival-house audiences teary-eyed with pleasure. Baz Luhrmann's Moulin Rouge may be very sly, but this is the real thing. --Robert Horton ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Magnificent
FRENCH CANCAN is arguably Renoir's best film in the 1950s (rivalled only by THE GOLDEN COACH and THE RIVER). It may well be the best filmization of that oft-filmed musical hall story, Moulin Rouge. It surely beats the hell out of John Huston's colourful but basically vacuous ..., or any other contender.

FRENCH CANCAN is a wonderful example of the kind of farcical frivolity that characterizes Renoir's work in the 50s. In a sense, the film struck me as a semi-sequel to the magical GOLDEN COACH, although CANCAN is much more intricate and restrained work. Both films are uniquely similar in that they never venture outside the theatre. Some critics have rudely charged the film for being too stagey and theatrical, but what the critics fail to see is that Renoir celebrates the theatricality of movies: He finds energy and vigour in the theatre functioning as a profound metaphor for life.

But what's so special about FRENCH CANCAN, aside from the exquisite colour, music, and dance numbers, is the way it understands that the wonderful world of the theatre is a result of hard and painful work. As the film proceeds, it leaves behind some hurtful feelings. Some of them are not reconciled. And Jean Gabin, in one of his greatest performances, is very adept at conveying these sombre feelings. Nonetheless, such feelings become thing of a past when the film reaches its spectacular finale, with the gusto of swirling cancan dancers.

FRENCH CANCAN is the most passionate and invigorating work of Renoir's late period. It is also my second favourite Renoir after THE RULES OF THE GAME.

Birth of the can-can and its home, the Moulin Rouge.
Lush, vibrant recreation of "belle epoque" Paris as showman Danglard (Jean Gabin) juggles lovers, creditors, and egos to create the Moulin Rouge and its main attraction: the can-can. The entire file is (by Eisenhower-era American standards) uncommonly sexy, and shuffles its musical numbers into the plot so subtly you forget you're watching(technically) a musical. The climactic nine-minute can-can is breathtaking. END ... Read more

Reviews (1)

Poignant, funny, clever
Although much less known than his masterpieces Regle du Jeu and Grande Illusion, Renoir's Crime de M. Lange is truly a great movie. Lange, a young publishing clerk with too much imagination, pens laughably awful American Westerns in his spare time. His friends at the firm include a beautiful set of quirky and diverse characters. Together, they oppose their corrupt and lecherous boss in a none too subtle political message from Renoir. With an appropriately tender style, he paints light humor and poignant emotions as the workers struggle together. ... Read more

Description

One of the most celebrated anti-war films ever made -- Jean Renoir's (The Rules of the Game, The Southerner) Grand Illusion filters its indictments through the interactions and sacrifices of characters that are divided by class rather than n ... Read more

Reviews (36)

The strangely gentle vision of Jean Renoir
I was absolutely floored when I first saw this movie about a year ago, at the house of a friend. I adore old war films (think "The Great Escape," "Stalag 17," and "Bridge on the River Kwai"), and thought I had the genre just about memorized until I saw this. It is an intense film, a grand one, but ultimately gentle. It takes place during World War I, which, the director once said, was "almost a war of gentlmen." The Nazis were two decades from gaining power, the nations of Europe enjoyed relative prosperity, and the upper classes ruled over all. In this setting, the necessary brutality of such films as I've previously mentioned seems out of place. Indeed, in the first few scenes, a German pilot who has shot down two French fliers invites them for lunch with his officers (!). This kind of respect, this illusion that war abides by certain rules and expectations, seems anachronostic and dated at first, in a post-Vietnam, post-9/11 world. But there is such hope, such desire for a world where the classes between nations are united, that the movie never seems jingoistic or naïve, just optimistic.

The performances are exceptional; Jean Gabin, Erich von Stroheim, Pierre Fresnay--all seem to really live in their characters, not simply portray them. Von Stroheim, in particular, brings intense poignancy to the tragic figure of the German commandant von Rauffenstein, with his neck brace, stilted walk, and desperate yearning for companionship (which makes him turn to, of all people, his own enemy, Captain de Boeldieu, whom he shot down 18 months previous). Indeed, a lot of the film's message can be summed up in this character: his friendship with an enemy soldier, expressing Renoir's hope for a more peaceful, less divided world; his accoutrements of wealth and station, which hold him firmly in place, unable to change his views of the structure of the world, even as it shifts around him; and his belief in the eponymous "grand illusion" of the continued supremacy of the aristocrats over the working classes in a world scarred by war.

As a bit of a side note, this film, considering its age, is in startlingly pristine condition. The story of the film negative is told on the DVD, as part of the many supplements, so I won't bore you with it here. Suffice it to say that this version of this seminal film was lost for over 60 years before its discovery in the 1990s, resulting in its near-perfect condition today. The picture is as sharp as that of any contemporary film, crystal clear, and refreshingly free of dirt and tears that usually mar most older prints by virtue of constant use. This version is about the best you will find, as it has gone through a tedious, time-consuming restoration process that has given it this impressive sheen. My recommendation: Buy this DVD post haste.

Number 1 DVD transfer for the Number 1 movie !
Grand Illusion is sometimes considered as one of the greatest movies ever shot. It was Orson Welles' favorite. Even though many consider that "Rules of the Game" is more important and brillant. The two movies are very different, both incredible. Grand Illusion is easier to catch immediatly while Rules let you think endlessly. In regard of the DVD : BUY IT EYES CLOSED ! The picture is incredible, looks like it was shot yesterday because coming from the original re-found negative film. It has not even one small spot or crack. It is PURE. And it is the original 114 minutes version, not the well-known 105 minutes. The DVD is full of bonus, the best being the filmed introduction by Jean Renoir, and also the audio archive of Von Stroheim. I cannot express how much I love Renoir and this movie and I hope that Rules of the Game will come up in DVD soon in Zone 1 (it exists in France in Zone 2 with a beautiful master, but has no english subtitles). Then the world can contemplate this masterpiece again and again. Buy Grand Illusion and you'll never think of war and humanity the same way again.

So....you like war movies?
grand illusion is so well known that is almost not worthy to comment on it other than it is the best war/antiwar film of all time bar none, and is also very funny. it has been copied by the great escape, stalag 17, paths of glory, just to name a few. so if you haven' t seen this; it is essential. if you have, you know exactly what i am talking about.

"quite frankly, i find the theatre is much to deep for me....i prefer bicycling"

A timeless film
The bitter and wonderful dialogues about the decadence and the primary and secondaries effects about the war support the structure of this brilliant movie.
*The miseries of the war brought the richness in my brain*, this sentenece is pronounced by Stroheim to the men in the remarkable sequence at the dinner.
Jean Renoir made his masterpiece around the hope and the enjoy of living, despite the horrors of the war. The message is clear : you must to follow your bliss even in the worst circunstances : no matter how awful be the world that surrounds you. The great men are not prisoners of the fate : they follow his principles and the powerful will struggles the fate and so it becomes a consequence of their acts , the point is that they are just a few .
Andrei Tarkovski wrote once this wisdom statement:
*The art is possible in the world due its no perfection : if the world was perfect the art would have no sense*.
Thta powerful statement is the meaning force that feeds the behavior of these men . May be they are not conscious about the spirit of the statement of Tarkovsky , but they are doing precisely that.
The great illusion is a big slap in the face about the WW1 : but beware this is not an anti belic flim : it goes beyond this simple aspect : we should expect fifteen years after for Jeux Interdits , another supreme film of Rene Clement , which reflects with greatness the slap about the WW2.
This film is not only an extraordinary work. It's a thousand carats jewel.
So it's timeless movie.

A good movie great start for Criterion Collection
This movie shows a compassionate side to World War I This movie was made before WWII started so don't be surprised if the Germans seem a lot nicer. In it we have 2 men, a Catholic and a Jew escaping from a German POW camp during WWI. It is an excellent film and statred the popularity of prison escape movies.

One theme is the respect the German General had for his French counterpart in spite of the fact they were sworn enemies. It can also show that in war, that your enemies are people too.

The film is also viewed by some as a (failed) last cry to Germany (where it was banned) to avoid the destruction and senselessness of yet another war.

I am beginning to watch the Criterion Collection DVD's in order of the spine number and will review them when I have the chance. ... Read more

Reviews (36)

The strangely gentle vision of Jean Renoir
I was absolutely floored when I first saw this movie about a year ago, at the house of a friend. I adore old war films (think "The Great Escape," "Stalag 17," and "Bridge on the River Kwai"), and thought I had the genre just about memorized until I saw this. It is an intense film, a grand one, but ultimately gentle. It takes place during World War I, which, the director once said, was "almost a war of gentlmen." The Nazis were two decades from gaining power, the nations of Europe enjoyed relative prosperity, and the upper classes ruled over all. In this setting, the necessary brutality of such films as I've previously mentioned seems out of place. Indeed, in the first few scenes, a German pilot who has shot down two French fliers invites them for lunch with his officers (!). This kind of respect, this illusion that war abides by certain rules and expectations, seems anachronostic and dated at first, in a post-Vietnam, post-9/11 world. But there is such hope, such desire for a world where the classes between nations are united, that the movie never seems jingoistic or naïve, just optimistic.

The performances are exceptional; Jean Gabin, Erich von Stroheim, Pierre Fresnay--all seem to really live in their characters, not simply portray them. Von Stroheim, in particular, brings intense poignancy to the tragic figure of the German commandant von Rauffenstein, with his neck brace, stilted walk, and desperate yearning for companionship (which makes him turn to, of all people, his own enemy, Captain de Boeldieu, whom he shot down 18 months previous). Indeed, a lot of the film's message can be summed up in this character: his friendship with an enemy soldier, expressing Renoir's hope for a more peaceful, less divided world; his accoutrements of wealth and station, which hold him firmly in place, unable to change his views of the structure of the world, even as it shifts around him; and his belief in the eponymous "grand illusion" of the continued supremacy of the aristocrats over the working classes in a world scarred by war.

As a bit of a side note, this film, considering its age, is in startlingly pristine condition. The story of the film negative is told on the DVD, as part of the many supplements, so I won't bore you with it here. Suffice it to say that this version of this seminal film was lost for over 60 years before its discovery in the 1990s, resulting in its near-perfect condition today. The picture is as sharp as that of any contemporary film, crystal clear, and refreshingly free of dirt and tears that usually mar most older prints by virtue of constant use. This version is about the best you will find, as it has gone through a tedious, time-consuming restoration process that has given it this impressive sheen. My recommendation: Buy this DVD post haste.

Number 1 DVD transfer for the Number 1 movie !
Grand Illusion is sometimes considered as one of the greatest movies ever shot. It was Orson Welles' favorite. Even though many consider that "Rules of the Game" is more important and brillant. The two movies are very different, both incredible. Grand Illusion is easier to catch immediatly while Rules let you think endlessly. In regard of the DVD : BUY IT EYES CLOSED ! The picture is incredible, looks like it was shot yesterday because coming from the original re-found negative film. It has not even one small spot or crack. It is PURE. And it is the original 114 minutes version, not the well-known 105 minutes. The DVD is full of bonus, the best being the filmed introduction by Jean Renoir, and also the audio archive of Von Stroheim. I cannot express how much I love Renoir and this movie and I hope that Rules of the Game will come up in DVD soon in Zone 1 (it exists in France in Zone 2 with a beautiful master, but has no english subtitles). Then the world can contemplate this masterpiece again and again. Buy Grand Illusion and you'll never think of war and humanity the same way again.

So....you like war movies?
grand illusion is so well known that is almost not worthy to comment on it other than it is the best war/antiwar film of all time bar none, and is also very funny. it has been copied by the great escape, stalag 17, paths of glory, just to name a few. so if you haven' t seen this; it is essential. if you have, you know exactly what i am talking about.

"quite frankly, i find the theatre is much to deep for me....i prefer bicycling"

A timeless film
The bitter and wonderful dialogues about the decadence and the primary and secondaries effects about the war support the structure of this brilliant movie.
*The miseries of the war brought the richness in my brain*, this sentenece is pronounced by Stroheim to the men in the remarkable sequence at the dinner.
Jean Renoir made his masterpiece around the hope and the enjoy of living, despite the horrors of the war. The message is clear : you must to follow your bliss even in the worst circunstances : no matter how awful be the world that surrounds you. The great men are not prisoners of the fate : they follow his principles and the powerful will struggles the fate and so it becomes a consequence of their acts , the point is that they are just a few .
Andrei Tarkovski wrote once this wisdom statement:
*The art is possible in the world due its no perfection : if the world was perfect the art would have no sense*.
Thta powerful statement is the meaning force that feeds the behavior of these men . May be they are not conscious about the spirit of the statement of Tarkovsky , but they are doing precisely that.
The great illusion is a big slap in the face about the WW1 : but beware this is not an anti belic flim : it goes beyond this simple aspect : we should expect fifteen years after for Jeux Interdits , another supreme film of Rene Clement , which reflects with greatness the slap about the WW2.
This film is not only an extraordinary work. It's a thousand carats jewel.
So it's timeless movie.

A good movie great start for Criterion Collection
This movie shows a compassionate side to World War I This movie was made before WWII started so don't be surprised if the Germans seem a lot nicer. In it we have 2 men, a Catholic and a Jew escaping from a German POW camp during WWI. It is an excellent film and statred the popularity of prison escape movies.

One theme is the respect the German General had for his French counterpart in spite of the fact they were sworn enemies. It can also show that in war, that your enemies are people too.

The film is also viewed by some as a (failed) last cry to Germany (where it was banned) to avoid the destruction and senselessness of yet another war.

I am beginning to watch the Criterion Collection DVD's in order of the spine number and will review them when I have the chance. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

ECCENTRIC FUN.
A much-praised and criticised film. Goddard is an enterprising young chambermaid who wants nothing more than to wed a rich man. As love would have it, a penniless valet becomes enamoured of her; he tries to win her the only way he can....France's great director, Jean Renoir (son of the immortal impressionist painter Augustus) was known for his realism in his French films. This picture, however, done during the director's Hollywood years reeks of artificiality. Upon its release in 1946, it met with disapproval with the studio system, and it was shunned by his French patrons. Perhaps egotistically, but most likely, they insisted that his best work was done in France, which is probably true. However, Renoir was unique and his humanism and morality breaks through here; a brilliantly oddball film which blends the serious and the comic. Francis Lederer is menacing as Joseph, Burgess Merideth is amusing as the eccentric Captain Mauger and Irene "Granny" Ryan has a memorable cameo as Louise, the timid maid.

A social satire that is Renoir's best American film
A mystery to audiences because its equivocal moralism when it premiered in 1946, "The Diary of a Chambermaid" is now considered one of Jean Renoir's key works for unlocking his contemplation of the many facets of human nature. This film is a faithful adaptation of the spirit of Octave Mirbeau's novel, exhibiting decidedly French sensibilities because of its expatriate director, cinematographer (Lucien Andriot) and composer (Michel Michelet). For that matter the novel had been a play written by Andre Heuse, Andre de Lorde and Thielly Nores, although actor Burgess Meredith had a hand in writing the screenplay.

This film is most reminiscent of his examination of the dark, sinister and ugly side of life as in "La Bete Humaine" and "La Chienne," that manages to be both a social satire and a perverse tragedy. Renoir's moralistic tone comes through, even with the surface levity of the characters, portrayed by an international cast. Celestine (Paulette Goddard) the chambermaid has a new job in the country estate of the Lanlaires (Reginald Owen and Judith Anderson), where she hopes to use her beauty to seduce a wealthy man. Three men from three different social classes with three different perspectives on the world vie for her attention: Young Georges Lanlaire (Reginald), who has come back home; one of the neighbors, the ex-officer Captain Mauger (Burgess Meredith); and the Lanlaires' depraved valet Joseph (Francis Lederer in the film's most memorable performance).

"The Diary of a Chambermaid" is filled with disquieting moments, such as when Mauger crushes his pet squirrel to death or Joseph kills a goose with a long needle, while Madame Lanlaire frets possessively over the family silver. Meanwhile, Celestine's doomed love life continues on the path to degradation. This is clearly the best of Renoir's efforts in America, although it does benefit from being considered in context with the larger body of his work. Final Note: look for Irene "Granny" Ryan as fairly young "Louise." ... Read more

Amazon.com essential video

This 1938 adaptation of a rather schematic and melodramatic novel by Émile Zola wasn't a personal project for the writer-director, Jean Renoir, but he made it his own, and it retains the power to shock over 60 years after its original release. This was a star vehicle for working-class hero Jean Gabin that Renoir molded into something pungent and powerful, a story of a curse of brutality that has been handed down in a family from one generation to the next. (The codependent psychology, if not the mood of doomed determinism, may seem more timely than ever.) The working environment of the protagonist, the railroad mechanic Lantier (Gabin), is depicted with great precision; we can just about smell the coal smoke. And the sequences in which Lantier succumbs helplessly to his inherited inclinations are as terrifying as any of the famous murder passages in Hitchcock. For a man with such a high reputation for gentleness and tolerance, the cinema's great humanist was very good at violence: it's worth recalling that almost all of his major and many of his minor films pivot upon vividly imagined brutal crimes. Nothing human was alien to him, not even the pathology of this loathsome "human beast." --David Chute ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Mystery Train
Although the identifying phrase "Film Noir" was yet to be used for another few decades, Jean Renoir's "La Bete Humaine" could arguably be considered one of the genre's blueprints. In fact, aside from the over-melodramatic music score, this naturalistic 1938 thriller looks and feels very contemporary. Jean Gabin is quite effective as the brooding train engineer plagued by "blackouts" in which he commits acts of uncontrollable violence, usually precipitated by moments of passion (Freudians will have a field day with all the point-of-view camerawork showing Gabin chugging his big, powerful locomotive through long dark tunnels). The beautiful Simone Simon sets the mold for all future Femme Fatales with an earthy, Sophia Loren-type sexuality not usually found in movies from the 1930's. In fact, it would be another 30 years or so before American crime films like "In Cold Blood" and "Bonnie And Clyde" would adapt a similar blend of adult language, sexuality and unflinching violence (in 1938, Hollywood was too busy pumping out Shirley Temple movies). Moody cinematography and a general existential malaise certainly doesn't make this a "feel good" popcorn movie, but fans of classic Noir will be fascinated. (Note: this film was remade in 1954 as "Human Desire").

Sound and fury
An extremely gritty adaptation of one of Zola's most intense novels. The sequences down the Paris - Le Havre track are superbly evocative of the main characters' inability to escape their destiny. Character-wise, though, the film takes a while to get going, and the scene of Lantier's (Gabin's) first blackout and possession by "the beast within" is contrived, poorly acted and not at all convincing. Things improve, thankfully. Updating the plot to the 1930s doesn't quite work in the sense that the protagonists' difficult living conditions in the novel are an important cause of their actions. With one noteable exception, the score is 1930s over-intrusive. And why oh why did Renoir change Zola's ending, which is far more powerful than the film's ho-hum-is-it-over? final scene.

Renoir's best
No film is as perfect as this one. Especially the first fourty minutes. Renoir uses a minimum of words to set up passionate, deeply flawed characters against a noisy (and silent) locomotive atmosphere. A masterpiece.

Interesting foray into Zola's naturalism classic, good cast.
Jean Gabin wanted to make a movie about trains. The result was the Bete Humaine. It is a good production which suffers, mainly, from a poor score (it is hard to imagine a poor Renoir film with Gabin). The cast is excellent but the plot suffers from Zola's naturalist bent. Railfans will love the beginning which takes place in the cab of a French State Railway locomotive on a run from Paris to La Havre. The actress Simon plays the female lead well (she is best rememberd in the U.S. for Cat People). Not in the same league as The Rules of the Game but well worth watching. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Interesting European take on the early days of WWII
Director Jean Renoir's reflection on the humiliating defeat of the French army in World War Two focuses on the attempts of a captured Parisian POW to escape from various German prison camps. The start of the film, with its pseudo-documentary presentation, is perhaps the film's most thought-provoking aspect... The concrete presentation of the collapse of the French military, and the astonishing internment of its two million (!) soldiers is a story that's seldom told when WWII is examined; it's mind-boggling when you think of it. Renoir cedes the Germans a surprising amount of humanity in this film; a legacy, perhaps of the Cold War-era alliances present when this was made, but also an unusual, nuanced touch. With its comedic "Hogan's Heroes"-ish undertones, this is perhaps not Renoir's deepest or most moving film, but it's still fascinating and well produced. Worth checking out.

Late-era minor Renoir masterpiece
Arguably the finest film of Jean Renoir's declining years, "The Elusive Corporal" is often wrongly cited as a "remake" of Renoir's universally heralded "Grand Illusion" (the similarities between the two are slight). Many critics have unfavorably compared the two, claiming that Renoir was merely re-baking old ideas here. However, other great directors frequently dipped into earlier successes, and some - Howard Hawks and Ozu Yasujiro to name a couple - made a career out of it. Yet you don't hear too many complaints about "Floating Weeds" or "El Dorado." "The Elusive Corporal" may not have been as groundbreaking as "Illusion" but I feel that it is the funnier and better of the two; it's a shame that it's out of print and so rarely seen. ... Read more

Description

Jean Renoir's effervescent comedy. As you may have heard, the film served as the basis for a somewhat heavy-handed comical remake, Down and Out in Beverly Hills . Renoir's 1932 work however, is lighter and simpler. Michel Simon portrays the scruffy derelict who is rescued from a suicide plunge and subsequently housed by a bourgeois bookseller. Although he gets cleaned up a bit, he remains a tramp at heart, causing mischief in the bookseller's household, but enlivening it at the same time. As was often the case in Renoir's films, much of the movie was shot outdoors and in real locations, and the genuine pre-War views of Paris are one of the film's serendipitous highlights. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

One of cinema's immortal, and most provocative, comedies.
The opening scenes of 'Boudu Saved from drowning' contrast the urbane bookseller Lestingois with the hirsute titular tramp. The former presides over a haven of super-civilisation on the banks of the Seine, surrounded by rare books, paintings, statues, the best that the best minds have thought and created. he is using the skill absorbed from this culture, however, to beguile his impressionable mistress, the young maid Anne-Marie - in this case classical rhetoric not only disguising basic natural urges, but actually replacing them, Lestingois' appetite more evident that his capabilities.

Boudu, on the other hand, is first seen in a park, caressing his dog, singing snatches of song, linked to the natural and populist. These two collide when Lestingois rescues a suicidal Boudu, and invites him into his home, where he is soon smashing plates, smearing shoe polish over the satin and spiiting in rare Balzac novels. The movement of the film seems to be towards the greater bourgeoisification of Boudu - new clothes, Samsonian hair cut, ennobling by money and marriage. But the film actually revolves around sex. The film starts with a Greek tableau of Pan chasing a nymph, cut to Lestingois and Anne-Marie. Boudu begins replacing his benefactor, not by accumulating bourgeois habits, but by displaying the sexual prowess the self-styled Priapus Lestingois lacks (the latter has no children).

70 years on, 'Boudu' remains a shockingly funny comedy, provocatively hostile to the soul-stultifying deceptions, compromises and resignations of the bourgoisie. If this makes the film sound aridly polemical, than you don't know Renoir - the slouchy, amused Lestingois is the most sympathetic character in the movie, cultured, tolerant, benevolent - his crime, if you like, it the bourgeois expectation that the rescued Boudu should be grateful and hence dependent. Even the women reveal depths beyond the initial caricatures - Mme Lestingois is given a beautiful epiphany, lying dejected on her bed, suddenly awoken by street music, taken back somewhere we've no access to. Concepts of death and rebirth, heaven and hell, destruction and continuity recur, filtered through the overarching metaphor of the river.

The film is a strange mixture of the antique and the modern. The documentary-like aspects of the film, the real-location shooting of pre-war Paris, its parks, cafes, pageants, music, rivers, boats etc., are ironically the most 'dated', in the sense that they capture a world long since vanished. The theatrical artificality of the film, by contrast, is the clue to its modernity - the division of the narrative into music-signalled acts; the farce-like plot; the complex composition of domestic and exterior space. The film's motifs revolve around spectators looking at unfolding dramas, windows framing action and dividing characters from life. There is a remarkable sequence in the park, where a plein-air location is turned into a vast, endless stage set, through which characters wander in and out. Far from restricting the cinematic quality of the film, this theatricality liberates it, opening up the rigidity of the frame, of one viewpoint, intimating whole worlds beyond it.

These tensions - between civilisation and nature, high and popular culture, sympathy and satire, ancient and modern, documentary and theatre - result in one of Renoir's, and cinema's, greatest films. ... Read more

Reviews (36)

The strangely gentle vision of Jean Renoir
I was absolutely floored when I first saw this movie about a year ago, at the house of a friend. I adore old war films (think "The Great Escape," "Stalag 17," and "Bridge on the River Kwai"), and thought I had the genre just about memorized until I saw this. It is an intense film, a grand one, but ultimately gentle. It takes place during World War I, which, the director once said, was "almost a war of gentlmen." The Nazis were two decades from gaining power, the nations of Europe enjoyed relative prosperity, and the upper classes ruled over all. In this setting, the necessary brutality of such films as I've previously mentioned seems out of place. Indeed, in the first few scenes, a German pilot who has shot down two French fliers invites them for lunch with his officers (!). This kind of respect, this illusion that war abides by certain rules and expectations, seems anachronostic and dated at first, in a post-Vietnam, post-9/11 world. But there is such hope, such desire for a world where the classes between nations are united, that the movie never seems jingoistic or naïve, just optimistic.

The performances are exceptional; Jean Gabin, Erich von Stroheim, Pierre Fresnay--all seem to really live in their characters, not simply portray them. Von Stroheim, in particular, brings intense poignancy to the tragic figure of the German commandant von Rauffenstein, with his neck brace, stilted walk, and desperate yearning for companionship (which makes him turn to, of all people, his own enemy, Captain de Boeldieu, whom he shot down 18 months previous). Indeed, a lot of the film's message can be summed up in this character: his friendship with an enemy soldier, expressing Renoir's hope for a more peaceful, less divided world; his accoutrements of wealth and station, which hold him firmly in place, unable to change his views of the structure of the world, even as it shifts around him; and his belief in the eponymous "grand illusion" of the continued supremacy of the aristocrats over the working classes in a world scarred by war.

As a bit of a side note, this film, considering its age, is in startlingly pristine condition. The story of the film negative is told on the DVD, as part of the many supplements, so I won't bore you with it here. Suffice it to say that this version of this seminal film was lost for over 60 years before its discovery in the 1990s, resulting in its near-perfect condition today. The picture is as sharp as that of any contemporary film, crystal clear, and refreshingly free of dirt and tears that usually mar most older prints by virtue of constant use. This version is about the best you will find, as it has gone through a tedious, time-consuming restoration process that has given it this impressive sheen. My recommendation: Buy this DVD post haste.

Number 1 DVD transfer for the Number 1 movie !
Grand Illusion is sometimes considered as one of the greatest movies ever shot. It was Orson Welles' favorite. Even though many consider that "Rules of the Game" is more important and brillant. The two movies are very different, both incredible. Grand Illusion is easier to catch immediatly while Rules let you think endlessly. In regard of the DVD : BUY IT EYES CLOSED ! The picture is incredible, looks like it was shot yesterday because coming from the original re-found negative film. It has not even one small spot or crack. It is PURE. And it is the original 114 minutes version, not the well-known 105 minutes. The DVD is full of bonus, the best being the filmed introduction by Jean Renoir, and also the audio archive of Von Stroheim. I cannot express how much I love Renoir and this movie and I hope that Rules of the Game will come up in DVD soon in Zone 1 (it exists in France in Zone 2 with a beautiful master, but has no english subtitles). Then the world can contemplate this masterpiece again and again. Buy Grand Illusion and you'll never think of war and humanity the same way again.

So....you like war movies?
grand illusion is so well known that is almost not worthy to comment on it other than it is the best war/antiwar film of all time bar none, and is also very funny. it has been copied by the great escape, stalag 17, paths of glory, just to name a few. so if you haven' t seen this; it is essential. if you have, you know exactly what i am talking about.

"quite frankly, i find the theatre is much to deep for me....i prefer bicycling"

A timeless film
The bitter and wonderful dialogues about the decadence and the primary and secondaries effects about the war support the structure of this brilliant movie.
*The miseries of the war brought the richness in my brain*, this sentenece is pronounced by Stroheim to the men in the remarkable sequence at the dinner.
Jean Renoir made his masterpiece around the hope and the enjoy of living, despite the horrors of the war. The message is clear : you must to follow your bliss even in the worst circunstances : no matter how awful be the world that surrounds you. The great men are not prisoners of the fate : they follow his principles and the powerful will struggles the fate and so it becomes a consequence of their acts , the point is that they are just a few .
Andrei Tarkovski wrote once this wisdom statement:
*The art is possible in the world due its no perfection : if the world was perfect the art would have no sense*.
Thta powerful statement is the meaning force that feeds the behavior of these men . May be they are not conscious about the spirit of the statement of Tarkovsky , but they are doing precisely that.
The great illusion is a big slap in the face about the WW1 : but beware this is not an anti belic flim : it goes beyond this simple aspect : we should expect fifteen years after for Jeux Interdits , another supreme film of Rene Clement , which reflects with greatness the slap about the WW2.
This film is not only an extraordinary work. It's a thousand carats jewel.
So it's timeless movie.

A good movie great start for Criterion Collection
This movie shows a compassionate side to World War I This movie was made before WWII started so don't be surprised if the Germans seem a lot nicer. In it we have 2 men, a Catholic and a Jew escaping from a German POW camp during WWI. It is an excellent film and statred the popularity of prison escape movies.

One theme is the respect the German General had for his French counterpart in spite of the fact they were sworn enemies. It can also show that in war, that your enemies are people too.

The film is also viewed by some as a (failed) last cry to Germany (where it was banned) to avoid the destruction and senselessness of yet another war.

I am beginning to watch the Criterion Collection DVD's in order of the spine number and will review them when I have the chance. ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Jean Renoir's film about a Southern family living on a farm
"The Southerner," directed by Jean Renoir in 1945 from George Sessions Perry's novel "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," is an interesting example of the pastoral films of post-War Hollywood. This film is one of those films honoring the indomitable spirit of man as it follows the Tucker family in their efforts to set up a self-sufficient farm in the South. San (Zachary Scott), Nona (Betty Field), their children and their spunky scene-stealing granny (Beluah Bondi) have to put up with poverty, weather, disease and even the hostility of their neighbors as everything goes wrong. If a storm is not wrecking their crops, then one of their neighbors sends a cow to eat their vegetable patch. Renoir was one of the first directors to do location shooting for non-Western films, having first gone to the Deep South for 1941's "Swamp Water." But whereas the locale of "The Southerner" is certainly realistic, the same came not be said for the actors. There is an inherent urban sophistication to Scott, so that it just does not seem right that he is out there catching a fish with his bare hands or offering up a hillbilly prayer to God. Renoir needed the same sort of earnest characterization of the great unwashed you find in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath." However, certainly this is an earnest effort from Renoir and he comes out slightly ahead on the overall balance sheet. Besides, Bunny Sunshine is in this film.

A Southern family sets up a farm in this Jean Renoir film
"The Southerner," directed by Jean Renoir in 1945 from George Sessions Perry's novel "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," is an interesting example of the pastoral films of post-War Hollywood. The film is one of those films honorable the indomitable spirit of man as it follows the Tucker family in their efforts to set up a self-sufficient farm in the South. San (Zachary Scott), Nona (Betty Field), their children and their spunky granny (Beluah Bondi) have to put up with poverty, weather, disease and even the hostility of their neighbors as everything goes wrong. If a storm is not wrecking their crops, then one of their neighbors sends a cow to eat their vegetable patch. Renoir was one of the first directors to do location shooting for non-Western films, having first gone to the Deep South for 1941's "Swamp Water." But whereas the locale of "The Southerner" is certainly realistic, the same came not be said for the actors. There is an inherent urban sophistication to Scott, so that it just does not seem right that he is out there catching a fish with his bare hands or offering up a hillbilly prayer to God. Renoir needed the same sort of earnest characterization of the great unwashed you find in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath." However, certainly this is an earnest effort from Renoir and he comes out slightly ahead on the overall balance sheet. Besides, Bunny Sunshine is in this film.

TOUCHING
A sincere film, real, poignant, believable, and excellently acted all around. It tells the story of the hardships lived by a poor family in the country. For sure in my top ten list! Unforgettable!

5 stars for movie, 3 for DVD quality
Renoir's "The Southerner" captures the gripping poverty of southern share croppers. It has a good story line, beautiful black and white cinematography, and fine acting. In fact my only objection is that the actors did not have much of a southern accent and looked "too pretty" at times for their environment.

This is a film that cries out for restoration, as has been done with the wonderful Criterion Collection DVD of "Grand Illusion". As it is, I rated this 4 stars because of the 2 to 3 star poor condition of the print used...black lines, jumping images at times and poor soundtrack. Well, you can't have everything and would still recommend seeing this movie. Together with "Grapes of Wrath" and "Salt of the Earth", it draws a powerful portrait of the power of a family and human kindness in a struggle against grinding poverty.

The American South As Seen by a French Director
If you loved Grand Illusion and Rules of the Game, this movie is probably not for you. Directing in a language and culture not his own, Jean Renoir drifts toward the corny and stereotypical in this melodrama about a desperate Southern farmer and his beautiful wife. The dialog is especially artificial, spoken by handsome, well-groomed actors out of central casting. If you're interested in the authentic southern or Appalachian poor, see Walker Evans's 1930s photographs. Stick with the Renoir movies shot in France. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

A DOUBLE GEM VIDEO
This 1931 Renoir movie, made four years after the arrival of the first talking picture, is a very realistic analysis of some aspects of Montmartre way of living, with it's crude dialogue, lightened only by Renoir's naturalistic poetry. Michel Simon gives in this film (and in "L'Atalante") one of his top performances as the constantly humiliated husband who goes painting to support his mistress who exploits him.
"La Chienne" comes with the 1936 short "Une partie de campagne" , a masterpiece of French freshness which reminds us that Jean Renoir is also the son of the impressionist painter Auguste Renoir.
One complaint about this bonus film: dialogue is almost inaudible due to sound parasites. ... Read more

Reviews (2)

Magnificent
FRENCH CANCAN is arguably Renoir's best film in the 1950s (rivalled only by THE GOLDEN COACH and THE RIVER). It may well be the best filmization of that oft-filmed musical hall story, Moulin Rouge. It surely beats the hell out of John Huston's colourful but basically vacuous ..., or any other contender.

FRENCH CANCAN is a wonderful example of the kind of farcical frivolity that characterizes Renoir's work in the 50s. In a sense, the film struck me as a semi-sequel to the magical GOLDEN COACH, although CANCAN is much more intricate and restrained work. Both films are uniquely similar in that they never venture outside the theatre. Some critics have rudely charged the film for being too stagey and theatrical, but what the critics fail to see is that Renoir celebrates the theatricality of movies: He finds energy and vigour in the theatre functioning as a profound metaphor for life.

But what's so special about FRENCH CANCAN, aside from the exquisite colour, music, and dance numbers, is the way it understands that the wonderful world of the theatre is a result of hard and painful work. As the film proceeds, it leaves behind some hurtful feelings. Some of them are not reconciled. And Jean Gabin, in one of his greatest performances, is very adept at conveying these sombre feelings. Nonetheless, such feelings become thing of a past when the film reaches its spectacular finale, with the gusto of swirling cancan dancers.

FRENCH CANCAN is the most passionate and invigorating work of Renoir's late period. It is also my second favourite Renoir after THE RULES OF THE GAME.

Birth of the can-can and its home, the Moulin Rouge.
Lush, vibrant recreation of "belle epoque" Paris as showman Danglard (Jean Gabin) juggles lovers, creditors, and egos to create the Moulin Rouge and its main attraction: the can-can. The entire file is (by Eisenhower-era American standards) uncommonly sexy, and shuffles its musical numbers into the plot so subtly you forget you're watching(technically) a musical. The climactic nine-minute can-can is breathtaking. END ... Read more

Reviews (4)

Mystery Train
Although the identifying phrase "Film Noir" was yet to be used for another few decades, Jean Renoir's "La Bete Humaine" could arguably be considered one of the genre's blueprints. In fact, aside from the over-melodramatic music score, this naturalistic 1938 thriller looks and feels very contemporary. Jean Gabin is quite effective as the brooding train engineer plagued by "blackouts" in which he commits acts of uncontrollable violence, usually precipitated by moments of passion (Freudians will have a field day with all the point-of-view camerawork showing Gabin chugging his big, powerful locomotive through long dark tunnels). The beautiful Simone Simon sets the mold for all future Femme Fatales with an earthy, Sophia Loren-type sexuality not usually found in movies from the 1930's. In fact, it would be another 30 years or so before American crime films like "In Cold Blood" and "Bonnie And Clyde" would adapt a similar blend of adult language, sexuality and unflinching violence (in 1938, Hollywood was too busy pumping out Shirley Temple movies). Moody cinematography and a general existential malaise certainly doesn't make this a "feel good" popcorn movie, but fans of classic Noir will be fascinated. (Note: this film was remade in 1954 as "Human Desire").

Sound and fury
An extremely gritty adaptation of one of Zola's most intense novels. The sequences down the Paris - Le Havre track are superbly evocative of the main characters' inability to escape their destiny. Character-wise, though, the film takes a while to get going, and the scene of Lantier's (Gabin's) first blackout and possession by "the beast within" is contrived, poorly acted and not at all convincing. Things improve, thankfully. Updating the plot to the 1930s doesn't quite work in the sense that the protagonists' difficult living conditions in the novel are an important cause of their actions. With one noteable exception, the score is 1930s over-intrusive. And why oh why did Renoir change Zola's ending, which is far more powerful than the film's ho-hum-is-it-over? final scene.

Renoir's best
No film is as perfect as this one. Especially the first fourty minutes. Renoir uses a minimum of words to set up passionate, deeply flawed characters against a noisy (and silent) locomotive atmosphere. A masterpiece.

Interesting foray into Zola's naturalism classic, good cast.
Jean Gabin wanted to make a movie about trains. The result was the Bete Humaine. It is a good production which suffers, mainly, from a poor score (it is hard to imagine a poor Renoir film with Gabin). The cast is excellent but the plot suffers from Zola's naturalist bent. Railfans will love the beginning which takes place in the cab of a French State Railway locomotive on a run from Paris to La Havre. The actress Simon plays the female lead well (she is best rememberd in the U.S. for Cat People). Not in the same league as The Rules of the Game but well worth watching. ... Read more

Reviews (1)

enjoy the picnic
the film is about a professor who is running for the Presidency of Europe !?! whose platform is on artificial insemination to bring order and control(over intelligence, health,etc.) over a society. He believes "passion resulting in natural relation" between man and woman can be "prevented through therapy". It is also about a country girl Nanette(lovely Catherine Rouvel) who is set on having a baby without a man (through artificial insemination) 'cause her brother in law is well... you'll see.
They are placed in a picnic for the publicity of the candidate in the nature and their views are re-examined when a mythical piper's music brings them together amidst the lush summer day with wind, grass, water, other people having fun. Love the scooter scene that curiously reminds me of Amelie. At first the movie felt more like a lazy afternoon on a hammock (as in I fell a sleep). But I was awakened by the energy of bright Nanette skipping around in her red slippers and following her from start to finish. there's so much more to this picnic. The scenes are like the impressionistic paintings full of lights and motion of the elements and people. I fell in love with Jean Renoir's summer in the country.
Various themes include feminism, science v. nature, religion, love, family,freedom flow through. all these subjects are handled with comedy and sweetness of a picnic in the grass. ... Read more

Description

Jean Renoir's (Grand Illusion, Rules of the Game) most critically acclaimed American film, The Southerner is a moving, naturalistic portrayal of one family's struggle to start a farm in the South.Tied to the land for better or worse ... Read more

Reviews (8)

Jean Renoir's film about a Southern family living on a farm
"The Southerner," directed by Jean Renoir in 1945 from George Sessions Perry's novel "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," is an interesting example of the pastoral films of post-War Hollywood. This film is one of those films honoring the indomitable spirit of man as it follows the Tucker family in their efforts to set up a self-sufficient farm in the South. San (Zachary Scott), Nona (Betty Field), their children and their spunky scene-stealing granny (Beluah Bondi) have to put up with poverty, weather, disease and even the hostility of their neighbors as everything goes wrong. If a storm is not wrecking their crops, then one of their neighbors sends a cow to eat their vegetable patch. Renoir was one of the first directors to do location shooting for non-Western films, having first gone to the Deep South for 1941's "Swamp Water." But whereas the locale of "The Southerner" is certainly realistic, the same came not be said for the actors. There is an inherent urban sophistication to Scott, so that it just does not seem right that he is out there catching a fish with his bare hands or offering up a hillbilly prayer to God. Renoir needed the same sort of earnest characterization of the great unwashed you find in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath." However, certainly this is an earnest effort from Renoir and he comes out slightly ahead on the overall balance sheet. Besides, Bunny Sunshine is in this film.

A Southern family sets up a farm in this Jean Renoir film
"The Southerner," directed by Jean Renoir in 1945 from George Sessions Perry's novel "Hold Autumn in Your Hand," is an interesting example of the pastoral films of post-War Hollywood. The film is one of those films honorable the indomitable spirit of man as it follows the Tucker family in their efforts to set up a self-sufficient farm in the South. San (Zachary Scott), Nona (Betty Field), their children and their spunky granny (Beluah Bondi) have to put up with poverty, weather, disease and even the hostility of their neighbors as everything goes wrong. If a storm is not wrecking their crops, then one of their neighbors sends a cow to eat their vegetable patch. Renoir was one of the first directors to do location shooting for non-Western films, having first gone to the Deep South for 1941's "Swamp Water." But whereas the locale of "The Southerner" is certainly realistic, the same came not be said for the actors. There is an inherent urban sophistication to Scott, so that it just does not seem right that he is out there catching a fish with his bare hands or offering up a hillbilly prayer to God. Renoir needed the same sort of earnest characterization of the great unwashed you find in John Ford's "The Grapes of Wrath." However, certainly this is an earnest effort from Renoir and he comes out slightly ahead on the overall balance sheet. Besides, Bunny Sunshine is in this film.

TOUCHING
A sincere film, real, poignant, believable, and excellently acted all around. It tells the story of the hardships lived by a poor family in the country. For sure in my top ten list! Unforgettable!

5 stars for movie, 3 for DVD quality
R