Cinema
La Bête humaine
Jean Renoir · 1938
Synopsis
Jacques Lantier, a locomotive driver on the Paris-Le Havre line, suffers from a hereditary affliction that drives him, in fits, to violence. A witness to the murder of Grandmorin, committed on a train by the railway employee Roubaud and his wife Séverine, he keeps silent, drawn to the young woman. Séverine becomes his mistress, and soon seeks to use him against her husband.
Context
Produced by the Hakim brothers, the film was shot partly along the railway lines between the capital and Le Havre. Renoir himself wrote the adaptation of Zola's novel, published in 1890, and plays the role of Cabuche in it, alongside Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux and Julien Carette. The cinematography is by Curt Courant, the music by Joseph Kosma. In 1954 Fritz Lang made an American remake, Human Desire.
Who it is for
A drama of an hour and forty minutes, dark and tense, whose locomotive scenes remain among the most famous in French cinema.
Prizes and reception
Restored in 2K by StudioCanal; the Criterion Collection released it in the United States under its French title.
Sources for this page 4
The pages consulted to check this page.