La Chienne (1931)

Directed by Jean Renoir. Starring Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant, Magdeleine Bérubet, Jean Gehret, Roger Gaillard.

English translation of the title is “The Bitch,” and if the shoe fits… The bitch in question is a scheming fille de joie (Marèse) who becomes the mistress of an unassuming and unhappily-married chump (Simon), milking him and his amateur artwork for all they’re worth while pretending her pimp/lover (Flamant) is her brother. The Punch and Judy-style puppet show prologue is a rather self-conscious touch for this proto-noir, but Renoir’s work rarely lacked playful bemusement, and there are only a few other times when anything besides lacerating irony infiltrates this den of iniquity (the uncertain tone of a slovenly meeting between Simon and his wife’s first husband comes to mind). Simon’s expressions dazzle in their emotive miseries, but Marèse isn’t always convincing pretending to be a good girl—Simon plays a fool, but even fools have limits—and it’s no surprise to learn that this was Flamant’s first film role. Smartly visualized themes, inventive juxtapositions, and bleak tragedy carry through. Remade by Fritz Lang in the U.S. as Scarlet Street.

74/100