Directed by Jean Renoir • 1931 • France
Starring Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant
Jean Renoir's ruthless love triangle tale, his second sound film, is a true precursor to his brilliantly bitter THE RULES OF THE GAME, displaying all of the filmmaker's visual genius and fully imbued with his profound humanity. Michel Simon cuts a tragic figure as an unhappily married cashier and amateur painter who becomes so smitten with a prostitute that he refuses to see the obvious: that she and her pimp boyfriend are taking advantage of him. Renoir's elegant compositions and camera movements carry this twisting narrative, a stinging commentary on class and sexual divisions, to an unforgettably ironic conclusion.
Up Next in Directed by Jean Renoir
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On purge bébé
Directed by Jean Renoir • 1931 • France
Starring Michel SimonBased on a comic one-act play by Georges Feydeau, the hour-long ON PURGE BÉBÉ is Jean Renoir’s first sound film. It was made in 1931, the same year as LA CHIENNE.
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Boudu Saved from Drowning
Directed by Jean Renoir • 1932 • France
Starring Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle HainiaMichel Simon gives one of the most memorable performances in screen history as Boudu, a Parisian tramp who takes a suicidal plunge into the Seine and is rescued by a well-to-do bookseller, Edouard Les...
