La Bête humaine

Rating:
Summary: Mystery Train
Review: 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").

Rating:
Summary: Sound and fury
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Sound and fury
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting foray into Zola's naturalism classic, good cast.
Review: 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.

Rating:
Summary: Renoir's best
Review: 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.