Jean Renoir best films: La grande illusion and La Règle du Jeu/The Rules of the Game)
& of Course:
Le crime de monsieur Lange
La Bête Humaine
OUR FRIEND DIRECTOR RICK MINNICH SAID:
Berlin film fans, make sure to check out the French poetic realism series running at the BABYLON from now until Jan. 31st.
During my first semester of college in NYC, I discovered the masterpieces of French poetic realism during a Jean Renoir retrospective at the old Regency Theater.
This special connection between realism and poetry is the result of a collective work.
The best directors of this period are those who surround themselves with the best creators: Screenwriters, dialogue writers, set designers and production managers. The work of directing is like that of a conductor who knows how to bring the talents together and harmonise the various skills.
It is obvious that Marcel Carné's great successes are linked to the dialogues of Jacques Prévert.
Their fruitful collaboration spanned more than ten years.
On the set designer side, two names quickly made a name for themselves: Lazare Meerson and Alexandre Trauner. Together they designed sets typical of poetic realism: desolate wastelands, dark and deserted alleyways, run-down buildings, smoky bistros, railway platforms and eerie harbour areas.
Characteristic places of transit and the periphery that lie on the edge of the ordinary social world. Cinematographers such as Boris Kaufman, Eugen Schufftan and Curt Courant work with a peculiar lighting design inherited from German Expressionism, which makes the glaring streetlights and wet cobblestones shine.
The style of poetic realism was developed almost exclusively in the studio. The growing ambition of the directors demanded perfect mastery of all visual and acoustic parameters.
This gave the design of the sets a new direction. Until then, directors had usually been content with three-sided sets like those used in the theatre. Réalisme poétique literally recreated the city in the studios. Examples include the Saint-Martin Canal inHôtel du Nord (1938), the Boulevard du Crime in Enfants du Paradis (1945) and the labyrinth of the Kasbah of Algiers in Pépé le Moko (1937).
All these places recreated in the studio have become part of the mythology of French cinema. These sumptuous and gigantic backdrops are typically emphasised by the lighting work, with the use of deep black creating strong contrasts between the surfaces. The sophisticated light of poetic realism is not natural light. Pronounced shadows are often used, which are superimposed over the figures and create a symbolism that enhances the dramaturgy. Réalisme poétique, which was an important trend in French cinema from the 1930s until the end of the Second World War, is characterised above all by a constant oscillation between the search for authenticity and the transfiguration of the real into the dreamlike.
In the films of réalisme poétqiue, the darkness of the cities harbours the darkness of life. There is a clear preference for tragic figures who are relentlessly pursued by fate. The case of Jean Gabin is particularly symptomatic in this respect. The most important actor of the time, who embodies the proletarian hero par excellence, always meets a disastrous fate in his leading roles. Even in the period of the Front Populaire (1936-1938), the hopeful mornings are short-lived or dubious.
Even if Renoir often plays with the characteristics of vaudeville and sophisticated marivaudage in his films, the change in tone to tragedy is symptomatic of this sick society. In general, the réalisme poétique testifies to a latent feeling of unease that pervades Europe in the period between the two world wars. A time characterised by the painful memory of the First World War as well as the foreboding and fear of this other war that was brewing behind the scenes.
Renoir’s “Toni” (1935), for example, is widely considered a major precursor to Italian Neorealism, with its authentic depictions of the working class, use of non-professional actors, and emphasis on on-location shooting.
Mit Unterstützung vom Institut français
Réalisme Poétique: Le Jour se lève [Daybreak] [OmeU] F, 1939: Marcel Carné. Drehbuch von Jacques Viot. Mit Jean Gabin, Jules Berry, Jacqueline Laurent, Arletty, 87 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Le Quai des brumes [Port of Shadows] [OmeU] F, 1938: Marcel Carné. Nach dem Roman Le Quai des Brumes (1927) von Pierre Mac Orlan. Mit Jean Gabin, Michèle Morgan, Michel Simon, Pierre Brasseur, 91 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Daïnah la métisse [OmeU] F,1931: Jean Grémillon mit Laurence Clavius, Charles Vanel, Gabrielle Fontan, 60 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Boudu sauvé des eaux [Boudu Saved from Drowning] [OmeU] F, 1932: Jean Renoir mit Michel Simon, Charles Granval, Marcelle Hainia, 83 Min
Réalisme Poétique: La Kermesse héroïque [Carnival in Flanders] [OmeU] F, D, 1932: Jacques Feyder mit Louis Jouvet, Françoise Rosay, Jean Murat, André Alerme, 115 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Les Enfants du Paradis [Children of Paradise] [OmeU] F, 1943: Marcel Carné mit Arletty, Jean-Louis Barrault, Pierre Brasseur, 195 Min.
Stummfilm um Mitternacht: Réalisme Poétique: Nana [OmeU] F, 1925: Jean Renoir. Nach dem Roman Nana von Émile Zola. Mit Catherine Hessling, Jean Angelo, Werner Krauss, Raymond Guérin Catelain, Jacqueline Forzane, Valeska Gert, 152 Min., Live an der Orgel Anna Vavilkina, Eintritt frei Admission free!
Réalisme Poétique: Drôle de Drame [Bizarre, Bizzare] [OmeU] F, 1937: Marcel Carné mit Françoise Rosay, Michel Simon, Louis Jouvet, Jean-Pierre Aumont, Jean-Louis Barrault, 84 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Sous les toits de Paris [Under the Roofs of Paris] [OmeU] F, D, 1930: René Clair mit Albert Préjean, Pola Illery, Gaston Modot, 90 Min
Réalisme Poétique: À nous la liberté [Freedom for Us] [OmeU] F, 1931: René Clair mit Henri Marchand, Raymond Cordy, Rolla France, 104 min
Réalisme Poétique: Les portes de la nuit [Gates of the Night] [OmeU] F, 1946: Marcel Carné mit Jean Vilar, Yves Montand, Pierre Brasseur, Serge Reggiani, Nathalie Nattier, 120 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Toni [OmeU] F, 1934: Jean Renoir mit Charles Blavette, Jenny Hélia, Célia Montalvan, 85 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Le crime de monsieur Lange [The Crime of Monsieur Lange] [OmeU] F, 1935: Jean Renoir, mit René Lefèvre, Jules Berry, Florelle, Sylvia Bataille, 84 Min
Réalisme Poétique: La grande illusion [OmeU] F, 1937: Jean Renoir mit Jean Gabin, Pierre Fresnay, Erich von Stroheim, Marcel Dalio, Dita Parlo, 113 Min
Réalisme Poétique: La Bête Humaine [The Human Beast] [OmeU], 1938: Jean Renoir. Nach dem Roman La Bête humaine (1890) von Émile Zola. Mit Jean Gabin, Simone Simon, Fernand Ledoux, 105 Min
Réalisme Poétique: La Belle équipe [They Were Five] [OmeU] FR, 1936: Julien Duvivier mit Jean Gabin, Charles Vanel, Raymond Aimos, Viviane Romance, 101 Min
Réalisme Poétique: La Règle du Jeu [The Rules of the Game] [OmeU] F, 1939: Jean Renoir mit Marcel Dialo, Nora Gregor, Roland Toutain, Jean Renoir, 112 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Hôtel du Nord [OmeU] F, 1938: Marcel Carné. Nach dem Roman L'Hôtel du Nord von Eugène Dabit. Mit Arletty, Louis Jouvet, Annabella, Jean-Pierre Aumont, 95 Min
Réalisme Poétique: LAtalante [OmeU] F, 1933: Jean Vigo mit Michel Simon, Jean Dasté, Dita Parlo, 89 Min
Réalisme Poétique: Le Grand Jeu [The Great Game] [OmeU] F, 1933: Jacques Feyder mit Charles Vanel, Marie Bell, Pierre Richard-Willm, 120 Min