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Boudu sauvé des eaux (1932) Directed by Jean Renoir

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 6:10 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 11 August 2008)

It's a movie with some more subtle humor but nevertheless it's not really a movie that could ever make me laugh, which was mostly because due to Michel Simon his very over the top portrayal of the tramp Boudu. You know, the kind of performance in which he plays his character constantly in a drunk way in an attempt to make him look funny. Also his look is far from convincing, with his fake looking beard and big wig. Hello afro! It just isn't the best or most likable character imaginable. When it comes down to French comedy from the early days of cinema ('20' and '30's) this really isn't the best the genre has to offer. For instance you're way better off watching a René Clair movie.

The movie can be seen as a social commentary to the French bourgeoisie and difference between classes. It's this element mostly that makes the movie an interesting watch. No denying that Jean Renoir was a great director who knew how to set up a story and scenes. He also always gets his point across, without having to force too much. Like always, he also in this movie uses some interesting sequences that have deeper meanings to it and the movie is filled with some metaphors.

As you could expect from a Jean Renoir movie, it's also technically a good one. The movie features some interesting camera-shots, which must have also been really original and revolutionary for its time. The editing isn't always too great however.

Not Renoir's best but it's an enjoyable enough little movie.

7/10

Partie de campagne (1936) Directed by Jean Renoir

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 4:16 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 22 July 2008)

This movie is a beautiful looking one and is like a day in the life of of a family on their summer holiday on the countryside, somewhere in early 20th century France.

The movie is filled with some unexpected contrasts and metaphors. The movie in now way can be called a formulaic one and it picks its own path with its story. This ensures that the story is both realistic as well as unexpected in parts.

The way how the movie ends is in large contrast with the rest of the otherwise happy and cheerful beginning of the movie. It has a summer holiday look and feeling over it, in which the main characters, from the big city, are obviously enjoying the beauty and quietness of the country life. You would expect the love story to unravel as a romantic one but the romantic first encounter really doesn't go as often gets portrayed in movies. I must say that the movie is just like life and it doesn't try to bloom things. But perceptions differ, as can be also seen in the final sequence of the movie, in which the events of that one summer day in the country left a big lasting impression on the girl.

What Jean Renoir does really well is capturing the right mood and atmosphere of the movie. Even though I obviously wasn't around in 1936, it still feels all very familiar and pleasant. Of course the movie gets helped by its country side environments, which gets captured perfectly on camera.

Not all of the actors were real experienced professionals, which can be seen back in their performances but overall this shouldn't trouble you to much, since Jean Renoir perfectly knows to tell the story with its images and character behavior, rather than relying completely on the actor's skills.

I wouldn't go as far as calling this Renoir's best but it's nevertheless a great, humble, realistic, honest, warm portrayal of life.

8/10

La grande illusion (1937) Directed by Jean Renoir

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 6:06 PM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , , , ,

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(Review originally written at 11 July 2008)

Of course this movie is being called the French version of "The Great Escape". Not because it has a similar plot, settings or main characters (on the contrary, since this movie is actually set during WW I) but because "The Great Escape" is about the ultimate movie within its genre, to which every other prison camp movie gets compared, no matter if the were made prior or after "The Great Escape".
It's a fine movie, that is directed by well known and acclaimed French director Jean Renoir. The directing is really superb for the movie. Every shot gets skillfully directed, often with lots of eye for detail. Yes, it perhaps is foremost the directing and its storytelling which makes "La Grande illusion" such a fine movie to watch.
But is it me, or is the second halve of this movie much weaker than its first? From the moment on when the main characters are being placed in the other camp/fortress the movie and it story sort of starts to get weaker, since the story and its main characters are being placed out of the environment that worked out so well for the first halve of the movie. Can't really say why but the movie just became a bit less interesting and was a bit dragging in parts. In the first halve the movie didn't really need a story, since it simply showed the war situations as the they were. Perhaps you should see it as a build up for the second halve of the movie, in which the characters are established and a main clear plot line is more clearly present.
The movie doesn't feature very well known actors (unless you're into French cinema of the first halve of the 20th century) but this works out well for the movie and its progress. It offers some surprises with its story and characters. The only well known actor of the movie is Erich von Stroheim and he indeed is a great actor and also shows that in this movie with his really great role but his German as well as his French accent sounded a bit off, probably due to the fact that he went to the States, early on in his life. This is a small but notable point of critique of an otherwise fine performance, that should had probably earned him an Oscar nomination.
The movie did receive an Oscar nomination for best motion picture of the year, which is obviously a big accomplishment for a foreign language movie. It also should be noted though that "La Grande illusion" in its year was nominated along with 9(!) other movies for the award.
It's a movie that uses nice and realistic looking settings and costumes. Hollywood movies from the same time period also tend to look a bit cheap, with its often fake looking backgrounds and cardboard sets.

A solid French war movie, without the war, from director Jean Renoir.
8/10


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La chienne (1931) Directed by Jean Renoir

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 5:15 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 29 March 2008)

This 1931 Jean Renoir French movie has a story of all times. It's about a man who falls for the wrong girl and gets deeper and deeper into problems because of it. What can be more lethal than a woman? The drama is complex and multiple layered and mostly works out so well in this movie since the story by no means is a standard formulaic one. The movie does a very good job at remaining an unpredictable one throughout its entire running time and you just never know how the movie is going to end or in which direction its heading to.

Jean Renoir was one the greatest early French movie directors from the 20th century. With this movie he makes his first 'talkie'. It's notable in parts that this was still all fairly new and all for him and there are some small clumsiness's. He fairly much keeps the same style as movie-making he used for his earlier silent productions. This is mostly notable with the compositions within this movie. Not that this is a bad thing in my opinion. It gives the movie a great look and style that also seems really fitting for this particular movie and its story.

It's a great looking movie with high production values. The camera-work is just great and the movie in parts also uses some great editing, that shows a scene from different camera angles. It doesn't do this throughout the entire movie though, since like I said before, the movie mostly keeps is made silent-movie style. Perhaps it was an early sign of things that yet had to come for Jean Renoir, when he in 1937 with "La Grande illusion", that used lots of deep focus and camera-movements, something that also heavily inspired Orson Welles, among others, which is also really notable in "Citizen Kane" of course.

Michel Simon gives away one fine performance as the movie its main character but the rest of the actors in acting within this movie is perhaps a bit uneven. But perhaps this also had to do with the fact that this was Jean Renoir's first sound movie and he had to become yet accustomed to working with dialogs and actors performing them.

Unfortunately the movie uses some of its speed toward the ending but the movie at all times remains interesting and compelling enough to make you keep watching and just loving this movie right till the very end.

A great first sound movie from Jean Renoir.

9/10

Le testament du Docteur Cordelier (1959) (TV) Directed by Jean Renoir

Posted by: Frank Veenstra Posted date: 8:16 AM / comment : 0 , , , , , ,





(Review originally written at 11 September 2006)

This is a rather unusual but successful take on the famous Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde story, written by Robert Louis Stevenson, that was first published in 1886.

In this French take on the story the story and settings are changed to the more 'modern' France of the '50's. But don't worry, they didn't changed the main character much, only his name. As a matter of fact Opal is perhaps far more brutal and a bad guy than his predecessors from earlier Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde movies.

The movie is more of a thriller and mystery movie than an horror. In that regard "Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier" already works as a surprising and effective movie. It provides the movie with some nice twists (especially obviously when you aren't yet familiar with the story of Jekyll & Hyde) and original moments. Yet the movie never truly manges to captivate the viewer with its story. It's too lacking in suspense for that.

Still "Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier" remains a far better than average movie. This is mainly due to its fine visual style which suits the movie well and the professional directing from acclaimed French movie-maker Jean Renoir.

Jean-Louis Barrault gives a fine performance as Dr. Cordelier/Opale, although he plays Opale a bit too much like a drunk. It doesn't however makes his performance any less powerful- or believable. Most of the other actors also give a fine performance, although however some of them are really below par.

Still all in all "Le Testament du Docteur Cordelier" remains a good and surprising enough movie to satisfy its viewers. Far from the best Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde movie but a more than good and above all, original attempt, from Jean Renoir, nevertheless.

7/10

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