LA BÊTE HUMAINE

english below

In deze adaptatie van Emile Zola’s roman vertolkt Jean Gabin een onstabiele treinbestuurder die een passionele affaire begint met een ongelukkig getrouwde vrouw, gespeeld door Simone Simon. Zij zit gevangen in een huwelijk met een dominante en gewelddadige man en hoopt door haar minnaar aan hem te ontsnappen. Een groot gedeelte van dit macabere verhaal speelt zich af op een trein, die het stevige tempo zet voor de film en het gevoel van onbehagen dat gedurende de film op de kijker afstevent. 

“Forty years after the invention of movies, Jean Renoir managed to re-create the astonishment that greeted the 1898 Lumière movie of a train arriving in a station. LA BÊTE HUMAINE is often described as an exemplar of the pessimistic poetic realism of the thirties in France, and as a precursor of forties film noir, but it begins on a note of heroic exhilaration, in which the natural world and the power of technology are wedded through the closely coordinated labor—effected through glances and sign language—of two men,” slaat filmschrijver Geoffrey O’Brien de nagel op de kop. Voeg aan die vergelijking nog één femme fatale toe en je krijgt een hartverscheurend verhaal van drie personen en hun ondergang.

ENG
The film is in French with English subtitles

In this adaptation of Emile Zola’s novel, Jean Gabin stars as the unstable train driver, who engages in a passionate affair with an unhappily married woman, played by Simone Simon. She is stuck in an unhappy marriage with a domineering and violent man and hopes to escape him through her lover. An important portion of this macabre film is set in a driving train, which sets the tempo of the movie and the unsettling feeling that heads towards the audience during the film.

“Forty years after the invention of movies, Jean Renoir managed to re-create the astonishment that greeted the 1898 Lumière movie of a train arriving in a station. LA BÊTE HUMAINE is often described as an exemplar of the pessimistic poetic realism of the thirties in France, and as a precursor of forties film noir, but it begins on a note of heroic exhilaration, in which the natural world and the power of technology are wedded through the closely coordinated labor—effected through glances and sign language—of two men.” Film writer Geoffrey O’Brien hits the nail on the head. And if you add one femme fatale to the mix, you get a heart wrenching story about three people and their demise.