La bête humaine [The Human Beast] (1938)

(On Cable TV, September 2022) For Hollywood film noir fans, La bête humaine’s main attraction is that it’s the film that inspired Human Desire, a pretty good 1954 Fritz Lang effort. As such, the original film is part of that group of French movies that led to film noir, the rough romantic crime poetry filtered through later post-war American sensibilities. Of course, compared to the slick cinematography of latter-day Hollywood, La bête humaine is coarser and blander. But writer-director Jean Renoir turns in a perfectly enjoyable effort, inspired but not beholden to the source Émile Zola novel—the biggest change being the focus of the film on a genre thriller narrative blended with romantic fatalism. It’s really not a feel-good film—and when you combine the film’s sentimental but merciless ending with Jean Gabin’s lead performance, you end up with something that would make a splendid double-feature with Pepe le Moko. That, or pair it with Human Desire—both are well worth watching together, if only to appreciate the subtle shifts in tone and atmosphere.