Review #1,253: 'French Cancan' (1955)

Jean Renoir is quite rightly remembered as one of the greatest directors of all time, having been responsible for the likes of La Grande Illusion and La Regle du Jeu, two movies that regularly feature highly on many 'greatest films of all time' lists. His most popular films were made in the 1930s, before the outbreak of World War II, and before he fled to Hollywood when France fell to the Nazis. After struggling to find any projects that suited him in the U.S., Renoir eventually returned to his native country where he started work on a project seemingly out of his comfort zone: a trilogy of bright and bouncing musical comedies. These films were The Golden Coach, Elena and Her Men, and, sandwiched between them, French Cancan.

French Cancan is filmed deliberately to evoke the paintings of the great Impressionist painters, including Renoir's own father, Pierre-Auguste. Set in 1980s Paris, this is the (fictional) origin of the Moulin Rouge, and, like Baz Luhrmann's spectacular Moulin Rouge! released 46 years later, the tale is told with elements of fantasy and lashings of colour. With his failing cafe about to fall in the hands of the creditors, the womanising Henri Danglard (Jean Gabin) hatches a plan whilst out one night in Montmartre with his rich colleagues and belly-dancing mistress Lola (Maria Felix). He will bring back the cancan, re-naming it the 'French Cancan' in order to sound more exotic to visiting Russian and American sailors. He eyes the beautiful Nini (Francoise Arnoul) and offers to pay for her to have dance lessons, enraging her jealous boyfriend. With chaos growing all around him, Danglard calmly tries to hold it all together in time for the big opening night.

Clearly indulging his love for theatre, Renoir really goes for broke with French Cancan, infusing the many love triangles and business arrangements going on with a bawdy, almost slapstick quality. Jean Gabin, the terrific actor Renoir employed on a number of occasions, manages to express so much by doing so little, and always with a sly grin on his face. It is a far better performance than is even required for such a character, and he offers an extra dimension to the work-horse who cares as much about putting on a dazzling, memorable show as he does for the leggy girls he employs. The titular dance at the climax is as eye-catching and fantastical as anything produced by Hollywood during the genre's Golden Age, and perhaps this was something Renoir picked up from his time there. Of the musical trilogy, French Cancan was the only hit, and it isn't difficult to see why this whimsical re-telling of the origin of one of the most iconic locations of its time struck such a chord with audiences at the time.


Directed by: Jean Renoir
Starring: Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, María Félix, Anna Amendola, Jean-Roger Caussimon
Country: France/Italy

Rating: ****

Tom Gillespie