60. La Chienne (The Bitch) (1931)

Directed By Jean Renoir

Synopsis

Man works at a mail office, and paints in his spare time. His wife is a hag, so he falls under the spell of duplicitous prostitute. Prostitute much in love with her abusing pimp. Pimp sells man's paintings under a fake name for a small fortune. Whore, bitch and all around bad person leaves man, pimp leaves her because she is of no use to him is she isn't bringing home paintings. Man comes back next day and in a fight kills prostitute. Pimp also comes to visit and finds her dead. Pimp gets death penalty for the murder. Man ends up as a vagabond, having left his wife and been caught stealing by his office to support his mistress.

Review

This was a very good film, as as you've noticed by the sinopsis it has a quite convoluted and interesting plot. Also, it's the first of many Jean Renoir films which will be reviewed here. The film is at the same time funny, innovative, tragic and depressing in equal measures and it is also refreshingly amoralistic.

Unlike most US films France did not feel the need to instruct its public with the films it produced. The criminal isn't punished for what he did, in fact all bad things that happen to him are not related to the murder at all. The wrong guy gets killed and there is no victory for justice. Neither does the main character (Legrand) ever get recognition for his paintings, which are by all accounts great works of art. The film ends with him destitute, no one ever knowing who he was, in fact all those who knew him despised his paintings, and himself. Particularly his demonic wife. In the end you cannot empathise with any character in the film, Legrand is a dead fish, the prostitute is a duplicitous bitch, Dede, the pimp, is a pimp and a wife-beater caring only for money. But then again you are not supposed to empathise with anyone at all in the film. If you do feel some sympathy it is toward Legrand, who is a murderer and whose only act of bravery was standing up to the bitch, killing her. And therefore not even an admirable act. This breaks all sorts of conventions, and makes it a better film for it.

Another interesting little touch is the framing of the film itself as a type of Punch and Judy show, or whatever the French equivalent of Punch and Judy is. The film starts as a puppet theatre introducing the story and characters and at the end of the film, when you've forgoten all about the puppets, the camera zooms out and the curtain falls on the little puppet stage. This is indeed a small touch, but a very effective one. You cannot get this film in DVD at all! And if you want it in VHS you can only get it from the States, so no PAL only NTSC... of course there are illegal means of obtaining it (beware, because I've been told *cough* *cough* you can only get it with Spanish subtitles, so either you are good at French or Spanish or you be fucked) ... but if you want to get it, get it from Amazon US.

Edit: I lie! You can get it in DVD from www.Amazon.fr ... just search for La Chienne

Final Grade

9/10

Trivia

The film is so obscure that no YouTube or Google video entries at all... if it ain't American... but here's a slide show of Jean Renoir's father (Pierre-Augueste Renoir) paintings:



From Wikipedia:

Jean Renoir (September 15, 1894 – February 12, 1979), born in the Montmartre district of Paris, France, was a film director, actor and author. He was the second son of Aline Victorine Charigot and the French painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. As a film director and actor he made over forty films from the silent era to the end of the 1960s. As an author, he wrote the definitive biography of his father, Renoir My Father (1962).