La Chienne

Michel Simon in La Chienne

Jean Renoir's La Chienne, from 1931, may be his first masterwork. A romantic triangle involving a pimp, a whore and a meek clerk, La Chienne displays Renoir's nimble conducting of actors and heralds the Popular Front humanism of his films in the 30s. 

The acting of the three leads (Michel Simon, Janie Marese and Georges Flamant) is nonpareil. Compare them to the leads in Fritz Lang's very good 1945 remake, Scarlet Street, and one sees Renoir's mastery in his handling of actors. Though somewhat miscast as a nebbish, Edward G. Robinson fares the best of Lang's three leads, but he lacks the naturalism of Simon. Dan Duryea was well cast as the pimp and I always find him entertaining. However, his performance sometimes descends to schtick (albeit enjoyable schtick) whereas Flamant seems at ease in the cafes and bars he inhabits and is not the least bit stagy. Duryea seems merely petulant at times and lacks Flamant's menace. Joan Bennett, a limited performer, is too old for her part and lacks the baby doll languor that Marese brings to the role. Bennett seems to be hitting the "I'm a hard edged bitch" button a bit too much, but since Lang is not a naturalistic directors of actors like Renoir is, that may just what Fritz wanted to cut through the smothering Production Code guidelines.

It is hard to watch Marese's performance and not think what a loss her early death was. She was far from a Montmartre chippie, but is deadly accurate portraying one. She was seeing Flamant, after rejecting Simon's advances, and was killed in an accident while riding in an auto driven by Flamant. Simon would go on to work in Renoir's next film in which he would play the immortal Boudu. 

Georges Flamant and Janie Marese 

The contrast with Scarlet Street casts an interesting light on the differences between Lang and Renoir. Scarlet Street is more of an expressionistic horror story which ends with Robinson walking the streets a madman. Simon is a bum at the end of La Chienne, but almost a joyous one; like Chaplin as the little Tramp or Stepin Fetchit in John Ford's films. His rejection of bourgeoise propriety has liberated him. Renoir portrays the plutocrats that bully Simon at the beginning almost like George Grosz caricatures. A dolly down a banquet table types them as fat, greedy capitalists straight out of Eisenstein. The Popular Front hadn't formed then, but Renoir's work here in La Chienne and Boudu display that its spirit was in the air.

The film also belies the notion that the early talkies were fraught with technical limitations. Renoir employs quite a few tracking shots, particularly one early in the film when Simon escorts his damsel in distress. The shot contrasts the courtliness and newfound intimacy between the two as they stroll through a sordid neighborhood; much like Ford's tracking shot of Dallas and the Ringo Kid as they walk pass the saloons and brothels of Lordsburg. However, Renoir's whore, unlike Ford's, does not have a heart of gold.

Included in Criterion's La Chienne  disc is the film Renoir undertook before La Chienne, Purge Bebe. This short farce is easily the worst Renoir film I have seen, but what can one expect of a film shot hurriedly entitled Baby's Laxative. It has a kind of goofy charm (I enjoyed Michel Simon breaking chamber pots), but was obviously made for a quick franc. In that the film's success enabled Renoir to make La Chienne, it served its purpose.