La Chienne

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william d @acsdoug Apr 24, 2022 Don't let the fact that this movie is 90+ years old deter you. This is a timeless tale of love, obsession and betrayal. Renoir's direction is superb. See more

Nov 23, 2021 Visually masterful and a wonderful morality story. One of the best uses of irony. See more

William L @RT77267842 Feb 2, 2021 La Chienne encapsulates a distinct, cynical view of the bourgeoise - repressed, dull, unfulfilled, materialistic, and moving through life detached; it shares considerable thematic and narrative points with Sternberg's The Blue Angel. While I'd argue Sternberg's is the more narratively powerful (particularly the intensity of the fall from grace, capped by a great performance from Jannings), Renoir's is more visually intense but otherwise subtle without losing much in the way of impact. There is also a dry satire at play in La Chienne, as if Renoir is telling the audience that when there is little to be happy about, one sometimes has to laugh; the attempted extortion by the lauded husband who was thought dead, only for Simon's Legrand to recognize a way out from his unhappy relationship, is comedic gold. The final scene in which Legrand scrambles for change as his self-portrait is loaded from a gallery to a waiting car is painfully tragic, an indirect victim of the aloof, uncaring nouveau riche. It is ultimately not even one of his many actual crimes that causes the downfall of Flamant's Dédé, but poor timing and chance, another testment to Renoir's treatment of the world as lacking in true justice ad in which good intentions are unrewwarded. Relationships and characters alike are wonderfully flawed in Le Chienne, superficially melodramatic but retaining much more underneath the surface. Overall, a successful transition for the lauded director from silence to sound. (4/5) See more

s r @ScottR Jan 15, 2018 1001 movies to see before you die. I saw this on YouTube. It was very good for its time. The clerk / painter, pimp, prostitute and the French culture were fascinating. See more

Jun 21, 2017 Jean Renoir's classic holds up amazingly well after all these years. See more

Mar 4, 2017 Foul love-play triangle, with no positive outcome. Take advantage of love and it will be false, deceit of disaster. A somewhat morality play from early Renoir, yet effective and playful, and so fucking relevant still to this day. See more

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La Chienne

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