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FROM THE VAULT: 1938

La Bete Humaine

Starring: Jean Gabin,  Simone Simon, Julien Carette

Director: Jean Renoir

The film: 'I feel like I'm paying for all those  fathers and grandfathers who drank. All those generations of drunkards who poisoned my blood and saddled me with this madness,' spits Jean Gabin  in rueful reference to his propensity for uncontrollable violence. Unable to maintain any kind of relationship with women, he focuses his affections on Lison,  his beloved steam engine.

For Gabin, also in real life, it was the latter that held the allure of making La Bete Humaine (The Human Beast), and he spent weeks on the footplate learning to be an engine driver. His co-star Julien Carette  learnt the trade of stoker, and in the opening five minutes of the film the two of them operate a barrelling locomotive between Paris and Le Havre.

Precariously placed cameras, slick  editing and Gabin's and Carette's natural performances create one of the defining scenes of pre-war French cinema. Railway workers were so impressed that they made Gabin an honorary union member, and in 1989 a parade on the Champs-Elysees marking the 200th anniversary of the French Revolution had a life-size replica of the train, 'driven' by a Gabin lookalike, as its final exhibit.

American film noir had its roots firmly planted in 1930s French cinema and Gabin, France's biggest star at the time, laid the moody groundwork, with films such as this and especially Julien Duvivier's Pepe le Moko (1937),   for every film noir actor who followed years later. Director Jean Renoir claimed Gabin could 'express the most violent emotion with  a mere quiver of his impassive face', and seldom was this more evident  than in La Bete Humaine, as he's drawn helplessly into a love triangle that he knows can end only in the loss of self-control and, ultimately, violent tragedy.

Anyone familiar with Emile Zola's La Bete Humaine   will probably be surprised at how  Renoir played fast and loose with the novel, with much exposition and most of the many subplots removed. But as the film was only 'inspired' by Zola's work (the writer was a friend of Renoir's father, the great impressionist painter), only purists will  complain.

Renoir's most straightforward film, and  his only wholehearted attempt at dramatic suspense, this is also the easiest of his films  for contemporary audiences, being much less reliant than his other work on French social conventions and politics of the day. There may, for once, be no underlying message, but right from the start it's painfully clear that there's definitely something in the mail.

The extras: Renoir  gets things going with a televised introduction to the film, made in 1967, and one of several that have been included on other Criterion  discs. Peter Bogdanovich (The Last Picture Show, Saint Jack)  talks about the film for 10 minutes, offering his usual sharp observations, and there's a 30-minute 1960s discussion featuring three French pipe-smokers giving an in-depth analysis that surprisingly gets more enjoyable  as it goes on. Archival footage of Renoir re-directing a scene from  the film 20 years later, again for TV, is also included, as is a worthwhile trailer and gallery of posters and on-set photos. A 36-page illustrated booklet featuring three essays on  the film is a smart finishing touch.



La Bete Humaine