Sat July 18, 2015
La chienne (Jean Renoir, France, 1931)
SEE EVENT DETAILS
at PFA Theater
(see times)
(aka The Bitch)
"What happens with great actors, and consequently with Michel Simon, is that they unmask you, bring dreams that you've had, but haven't expressed, to light” (Jean Renoir). In La chienne, Michel Simon is an unhappily married middle-aged bank clerk whose only passion in life is painting, which he does in his spare time, until he becomes obsessed with a prostitute (Janie Marèze). She plays him for the tragic sucker he is. Unlike Fritz Lang's remake, Scarlet Street, as Bertrand Augst points out, Renoir's protagonist has no remorse. The film is infused with a sadomasochistic sexuality that is both heightened and tempered by Renoir's camera, which (Renoir said) followed "the slightest detour of (Simon's) thoughts"—through windows, through time, truly through depth of field. In Renoir's first major sound film, shot on location, sync (rather than mixed) sound is brilliantly used: "Not only is the caustic criticism of French society most explicitly depicted in the mise-en-scène, but the soundtrack dramatizes very effectively the underlying social conflicts which characterize this society" (Augst).
• Written by Renoir, André Girard, from the novel by George de la Fouchardière. With Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, Georges Flamant. (100 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, DCP, From La Cinémathèque française, Restored and digitized by Les Films du Jeudi and La Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC and the Franco-American Cultural Fund - DGA MPA SACEM WGA)
show less
"What happens with great actors, and consequently with Michel Simon, is that they unmask you, bring dreams that you've had, but haven't expressed, to light” (Jean Renoir). In La chienne, Michel Simon is an unhappily married middle-aged bank clerk whose only passion in life is painting, which he does in his spare time, until he becomes obsessed with a prostitute (Janie Marèze). She plays him for the tragic sucker he is. Unlike Fritz Lang's remake, Scarlet Street, as Bertrand Augst points out, Renoir's protagonist has no remorse. The film is infused with a sadomasochistic sexuality that is both heightened and tempered by Renoir's camera, which (Renoir said) followed "the slightest detour of (Simon's) thoughts"—through windows, through time, truly through depth of field. In Renoir's first major sound film, shot on location, sync (rather than mixed) sound is brilliantly used: "Not only is the caustic criticism of French society most explicitly depicted in the mise-en-scène, but the soundtrack dramatizes very effectively the underlying social conflicts which characterize this society" (Augst).
• Written by Renoir, André Girard, from the novel by George de la Fouchardière. With Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, Georges Flamant. (100 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, DCP, From La Cinémathèque française, Restored and digitized by Les Films du Jeudi and La Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC and the Franco-American Cultural Fund - DGA MPA SACEM WGA)
(aka The Bitch)
"What happens with great actors, and consequently with Michel Simon, is that they unmask you, bring dreams that you've had, but haven't expressed, to light” (Jean Renoir). In La chienne, Michel Simon is an unhappily married middle-aged bank clerk whose only passion in life is painting, which he does in his spare time, until he becomes obsessed with a prostitute (Janie Marèze). She plays him for the tragic sucker he is. Unlike Fritz Lang's remake, Scarlet Street, as Bertrand Augst points out, Renoir's protagonist has no remorse. The film is infused with a sadomasochistic sexuality that is both heightened and tempered by Renoir's camera, which (Renoir said) followed "the slightest detour of (Simon's) thoughts"—through windows, through time, truly through depth of field. In Renoir's first major sound film, shot on location, sync (rather than mixed) sound is brilliantly used: "Not only is the caustic criticism of French society most explicitly depicted in the mise-en-scène, but the soundtrack dramatizes very effectively the underlying social conflicts which characterize this society" (Augst).
• Written by Renoir, André Girard, from the novel by George de la Fouchardière. With Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, Georges Flamant. (100 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, DCP, From La Cinémathèque française, Restored and digitized by Les Films du Jeudi and La Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC and the Franco-American Cultural Fund - DGA MPA SACEM WGA)
read more
"What happens with great actors, and consequently with Michel Simon, is that they unmask you, bring dreams that you've had, but haven't expressed, to light” (Jean Renoir). In La chienne, Michel Simon is an unhappily married middle-aged bank clerk whose only passion in life is painting, which he does in his spare time, until he becomes obsessed with a prostitute (Janie Marèze). She plays him for the tragic sucker he is. Unlike Fritz Lang's remake, Scarlet Street, as Bertrand Augst points out, Renoir's protagonist has no remorse. The film is infused with a sadomasochistic sexuality that is both heightened and tempered by Renoir's camera, which (Renoir said) followed "the slightest detour of (Simon's) thoughts"—through windows, through time, truly through depth of field. In Renoir's first major sound film, shot on location, sync (rather than mixed) sound is brilliantly used: "Not only is the caustic criticism of French society most explicitly depicted in the mise-en-scène, but the soundtrack dramatizes very effectively the underlying social conflicts which characterize this society" (Augst).
• Written by Renoir, André Girard, from the novel by George de la Fouchardière. With Michel Simon, Janie Mareze, Georges Flamant. (100 mins, In French with English subtitles, B&W, DCP, From La Cinémathèque française, Restored and digitized by Les Films du Jeudi and La Cinémathèque française, with the support of the CNC and the Franco-American Cultural Fund - DGA MPA SACEM WGA)
show less
Date/Times:
PFA Theater
2575 Bancroft Way, Berkeley, CA 94720
The Best Events
Every Week in Your Inbox
From Our Sponsors
UPCOMING EVENTS
Great suggestion! We'll be in touch.
Event reviewed successfully.