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La Bête Humaine

Director: Jean Renoir
Year: 1938
Run-time: 1 hr 40 min

- This isn't an easy film to love in 2020, since its protagonist murders women uncontrollably yet is meant to elicit a strange kind of sympathy, and the female lead is pegged as manipulative, coercing her lovers to murder.  Critics of the time period agreed that there is something deeply disturbing about this film based on an Emile Zola film.  Nevertheless, the performance of Jean Gabin and Simone Simon are fascinating to watch, and if the film took greater liberties with its source material, it might have been one of Renoir's finest.  As it is, it is a forerunner to some of the worst trends of film noir, as well as some of the best, and I wouldn't recommend it for everyone.

- This is Jean Gabin's fourth film on the list in two years, a feat I'm not sure will be repeated. I might call Gabin the best actor of the 1930's.  It's fascinating to compare him to a male lead like Cary Grant.  Whereas Grant always seems desperate to control any scene he's in, Gabin was always content to let the actors around him shine just as brightly. He wanted to play lost and troubled leads, and even though his character in this film was not the most well-conceived, he still turns in an excellent performance.


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