Bête humaine (la)

English title: The Human Beast

Genre: psychological drama (in black and white)

With: main characters: Jean Gabin (Jacques Lantier), Fernand Ledoux (Roubaud, the stationmaster), Simone Simon (Séverine, Roubaud’s wife), Julien Carette (Pecqueux, Jacques’s friend and co-worker), Jacques Berlioz (Grandmorin, Séverine’s godfather); secondary characters: Colette Régis (Victoire, Pecqueux’s wife), Jenny Hélia (Philomène Sauvagnat, Pecqueux’s mistress), Jean Renoir (Cabuche), Charlotte Clasis (Aunt Phasie, Jacques’s godmother), Blanchette Brunoy (Flore, Phasie’s daughter), Gérard Landry (young man Dauvergne)

Director: Jean Renoir

Screenplay: Jean Renoir and Denise Leblond (based on Émile Zola’s novel)

Release: 1938

Studio: Paris Film

Rating: -

MBiS score: 8.5/10

 

 

‟It's all in my head. Waves of grief. I get so miserable I can't even speak.”

 

 

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Story-line: Jacques Lantier, an engine stoker on the Paris-Le Havre railroad line, seems fairly calm and settled in life – as he says, his only love is Lison, the locomotive he works on – but his world is more complicated than that. He suffers from chronic health problems that send him into a rage now and then and his cravings for love are so strong that they can put him in awkward – if not dangerous – situations.   

Pluses: a serious, tense but controlled performance by Jean Gabin (a legend of French cinema), valuable support from Fernand Ledoux, Simone Simon and a seasoned cast (including Jean Renoir), expert direction, a sharp and complex screenplay driven by strong characters – all dissatisfied with their present lives – and brisk, innuendo-filled dialogues, breathtaking cinematography (Curt Courant), top-notch editing (Suzanne de Troeye and Marguerite Renoir), fine production values, a tragic musical score by Joseph Kosma and an awesome ending. 

Minuses: the first act does a good job of introducing us to the characters but, if you get them mixed up, please refer to the descriptive list above. The screenplay is faultless except for one small goof: at one point, Séverine mistakenly calls Jacques ‟Michel”.   

Comments: usually, a train rushing toward its destination is a routine sight on screen but the opening minutes of LA BÊTE HUMAINE set the tone for the potent drama to come by showing Jacques’s train from ground level – the camera literally clinging to an axle – and the result is harrowing. In Jean Renoir’s take on a Zola classic, all characters linked to the railroad are essentially slaves whose only purpose is to feed the insatiable iron horse. And the seemingly omnipresent trains and tracks all along the narrative only reinforce this feeling of alienation which, in turn, breeds jealousy, hate, desire and violence. In Renoir’s great work – a precursor of sorts to the film noir genre –, characters cannot escape their fate any more than trains can veer off their steely boundaries. As you will hear during le Coeur de Ninon, a very topical song featured in the movie, Qui veut aimer Ninette / En doit souffrir un jour (Whoever wants to love Ninette / Must suffer one day because of it).

 

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