Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir (2004)

Moulin Huge

By Jeffrey M. Anderson

Buy Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir on DVD

Despite his famous painter father, French film director Jean Renoir (1894-1979) quickly established a reputation of his own as a master filmmaker.

No one had a better sense of human behavior and delicate poetry. One of the most famous lines from Renoir is "everyone has his reasons," which seems to sum up all of his work.

His career survived a series of ups and downs, from great successes like the Oscar-nominated Grand Illusion, to the failure of the now classic The Rules of the Game. His brief career in Hollywood was perceived as a sellout, even though the films he made there rank among his greatest. And finally, his later period working in Technicolor revealed works that were wrongly perceived as outdated and unnecessary.

Even now that his career has been vindicated by critics and writers, and all of his films are now respected, admired and cherished, the director still hasn't come to rest in that top tier with Orson Welles and Alfred Hitchcock that most certainly belongs to him.

Now the Criterion Collection has released three of Renoir's full-color, late-period films in a spectacular new box set.

Critics of the time considered Jean Renoir's color films inferior to his black-and-whites, but that is not necessarily the case, as the full-color, English-language The Golden Coach (1952) is one of his greatest achievements. Though the film is a weird mix of light humor and weighty seriousness, it's the centerpiece performance by Anna Magnani that makes all the difference. She's a true force of nature, fighting off three different suitors from three walks of life while trying to make ends meet with her traveling theater show.

The colorful forerunner to Moulin Rouge, French Cancan (1955), tells a romantic story of the famous club's origins. Jean Gabin stars as an aging showman who discovers a beautiful little laundress (Fran¨oise Arnoul) and teaches her to dance for the stage. She falls in love with him, but, alas, he's not hers to have. In the meantime, a wealthy prince and a modest baker also fall for her. This is lighter than usual fare for Renoir, but his usual gracefulness is ever-present and he adds a distinct human center to the color and dazzle.

In addition, the box includes Elena and Her Men, starring Ingrid Bergman.

DVD Details: The Criterion Collection's box set includes introductions to The Golden Coach and Elena and Her Men by Jean Renoir, a video introduction to The Golden Coach by Martin Scorsese, a video introduction to French Cancan by Peter Bogdanovich, Jean Renoir: Hollywood and Beyond, part two of the BBC documentary by David Thompson, a three-part interview with Renoir conducted by Jacques Rivette, stills galleries and essays by film critics Jonathan Rosenbaum and Andrew Sarris and Renoir historian Christopher Faulkner.

Starring: Anna Magnani, Odoardo Spadaro, Nada Fiorelli, Dante, Duncan Lamont, Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, Ingrid Bergman, Jean Marais, Mel Ferrer
Written by: Jean Renoir, Jack Kirkland, Renzo Avanzo, Giulio Macchi, Jean Serge, etc.
Directed by: Jean Renoir
MPAA Rating: Unrated
Language: French with English subtitles
Running Time: 300 minutes
Dates: March 28, 2002