The Human Beast by Jean Renoir

Category: Non-English

I have to admit, I have never been into Renoir, barring a few films I can't really lay claim to being an expert on this. Onto the review - this film is very very dark, the characters are really not the most ideal ones and yet through his camera work and his execution Renoir paints a portrai in front of your eyes. Mind you - you don't even realize how serious this is until the very end of the film comes.

The primary characters are Jean Gabin's Jacques Lantier, Simone Simon as Séverine Roubad & to a lesser extent Fernand Ledoux's Roubaud. The film is based on the novel of the same name by Emile Zola. Lantier is a pathological killer who after serving his debt to society has settled down as a train operator he runs into a bit of trouble as he encounters the lovely Séverine who looks to start an affair with him - mind you she has an abusive childhood as a girl and is also storing away herself. Roubaud is the husband who commits a murder of an ex-lover of his wife and slowly disintegrates into nothing by the end of the film. His character crumbles away as the narrative progress'.

The film is completely powered by Gabin's performance and Simone as a back up. The camera gets very uncomfortable as the movie progress' and this just goes to show exactly Renoir wanted us to watch the film. The film has a very poetic set of lighting to it, thus probably alleviating the seriousness of the situation with the main characters. Some of the train sequences are really stunning for a 1938 film, the film gets a completely new depth when you are made to see the train pulling into the station.

Recommendation level: 4/5 - I really like it, but it's not a masterpiece! The editing is something to really watch out for. Got it from Palador and the rate was pretty good too, not to mention no glaring mistakes in the translation unlike some NDTV Lumeire films.