Now Over 5500 Reviews and (near) Daily Updates!

WELCOME! Use the search engines on this site (or your own off-site engine of choice) to gain easy access to the complete MAKSQUIBS Archive; more than 5500 posts and counting. (New posts added every day or so.)

You can check on all our titles by typing the Title, Director, Actor or 'Keyword' you're looking for in the Search Engine of your choice (include the phrase MAKSQUIBS) or just use the BLOGSPOT.com Search Box at the top left corner of the page.

Feel free to place comments directly on any of the film posts and to test your film knowledge with the CONTESTS scattered here & there. (Hey! No Googling allowed. They're pretty easy.)

Send E-mails to MAKSQUIBS@yahoo.com . (Let us know if the TRANSLATE WIDGET works!) Or use the Profile Page or Comments link for contact.

Thanks for stopping by.

Thursday, May 22, 2008

LA BETE HUMAINE / THE HUMAN BEAST (1938)

Jean Renoir’s proto-noir based on about a third of Zola’s fatalistic novel (an absolute stunner about a train engineer dogged by inherited violent tendencies with an unforgettable blackout ending) was an artistic stretch into narrative suspense, sexual torment & murder, made right at the great man’s humanistic, Popular Front prime. There are patches of over-acting and a background score that’s alternately inconsistent & insistent. But this popular success largely stays on track, with great outside-the-studio location shooting for the superb train sequences and iconic perfs from Jean Gabin, Simone Simon & Carette, who cooks a mean omelette. Renoir gives himself a nice cameo and managed to hire most of his extended family on the tech side. When you've got those Renoir genes in your DNA, nepotism is nothing to complain about.

LINK:  Fuller Write-up on this title here:  https://maksquibs.blogspot.com/2013/04/la-bete-humaine-human-beast-1938.html

No comments: