It pretty much covers everything - everyone is a performer, reality is more theatrical than theatre, and theatre is more real than reality. Yet at the same time, to be a performer as once professions necessitates one be outside of life. It's not beautiful nor tragic, because it is both at once. The building of the Moulin Rouge, and we watch how everything becomes? how things be? How things are? Renoir's greatest work by a gigantic margin (little theatre close tho) and also his most complex - more and more so after repeat viewings. Self-expression is self-exploitation: to perform and to be an artist are one and the same, and to do either it is necessary to separate oneself from…

Here, you can experience the tremendous joy felt by director Jean Renoir upon returning to France after more than a decade away in America. It's clear that he wanted to celebrate everything he had been missing, from bread, cheese and wine to the gaiety of Paris nightlife and the special bonds that exist among entertainers. As a vehicle for his exuberance and delight, Renoir chose to adapt an idea put forward by writer André-Paul Antoine about the 1889 establishment of the famous nightclub "Moulin Rouge."

It is pure coincidence that this film came out not long after John Huston's Oscar-winning production about the same Montmartre landmark. The American director's version concentrated on the role of French artist Henri de Toulouse-Lautrec,…

Renoir is a director who just gets me. He knows exactly what I want from a film and delivers just that. This film is more than a beautifully rendered series of shots and a tribute to art itself, it’s a total blast! There is so much life packed into this and the heartfelt affection Renoir has for his characters and the world he’s created makes it such an appealing and warming watch.

It’s a celebration of love, of life, of community, and most importantly of dance. For our protagonists, the art of dance is life. They laugh as they polka together…they make immortal friendships as they cancan… they fall in love as they waltz.

And as the title implies, the…

jean renoir's SANDY WEXLER

wasn't really expecting this to be partially about gentrification but it's one of the more astute films i've seen about the intersection between art and commerce, and perhaps more could be parsed out from it about the very concept of "slumming it." methinks a perhaps more savage contemporary version could be made about that crown heights restaurant with the 40 oz rose in paper bags and the fake bullet holes.

obviously this gets well-deserved attention for its astounding use of color and production design, but i was also taken with the editing; that final sequence, in which the "lowbrow" and antiquated entertainment of the cancan comes close to sublimity in a flurry of frocks and legs,…

More like "French cancan't" am I right?

Wait, no, what's the opposite of that?

Right, "French cancan", that's it.

Renoir does cutting: Esther singing, Danglard watching Esther, Nini watching Danglard watching Esther: A love triangle in montage (this is the smallest and least dwelt upon romantic entanglement, the two main ones are, in typical Renoir fashion, four-part romances, rather than the boring old triangle); the final triumphant performance intercut with Danglard backstage, too nervous(?) to watch, but riveted by the sound of the show and (more importantly) the audience's reaction.

Dance class designed to invoke Degas, but it reminded me of Lau Kar-leung just as much. Gotta practice to make art, even art built around something as primal as flipping…

Jean Renoir's exuberant and joyful film centres around the birth of the Moulin Rouge and is based on it's founder, Charles Zidler. Jean Gabin stars as Danglard, the man who's passion is to bring dance to the people. The problem is his cafe is being forced to shut down. Whilst visiting Montmartre Danglard and his aristocratic friends catch a glimpse of Nini (played by the utterly charming Francoise Arnoul) a laundress dancing the Cancan with her lover. It inspires Darglard to bring the Cancan back to Paris on the biggest stage possible, redressing it as the French Cancan.

Once Danglard approaches Nini about joining this theatre they soon become lovers, this causes much jealous and anger to the current lovers…

There’s something kinda cool about seeing the old windmill of the Moulin Rouge all lit up, and the cancan dancers twirling riotously about, throwing themselves into the splits and showing us their legs and knickers. Ooh-la-la! It was definitely a highlight to see Édith Piaf in her cameo too. These things don’t happen until late in the film though, and too much of what comes before is preoccupied with a silly melodramatic love triangle, plus one. A young woman (Françoise Arnoul) has to choose between a humble baker who will give her a virtuous life, a rich foreigner who will literally make her a princess, or her dancing, as well as the director of the show (Jean Gabin), who is…

Ce film est une lettre d'amour aux arts, en particulier aux arts de la scène. Parce que les artistes sont au service du public, dont le spectacle doit continuer. Le point culminant du film est la représentation en soirée d'ouverture du cancan lui-même, une émeute de couleurs et d'action, ponctuée de cris et regardée par un public ému par des actes de passion. Le tempo s'accélère alors que les danseurs sont poussés vers une gymnastique plus extrême comme une tarentelle de l'abandon. Renoir donne à chaque séquence de danse une stylisation scintillante de la caméra capturant avec élégance chaque numéro musical / mouvement de danse Le film se termine par une longue séquence cancan, alors que tous les personnages apprennent…

Em um baile que ocorre no “Reine Blanche”. O Príncipe Alexandre com seu olhar apaixonado e Paulo com seu olhar enciumado observam Nini, que só possui olhos para o charmoso Danglard. Enquanto isso, Barão Walter e Capitão Valorguei admiram Lola que observa enciumada Danglard que, por sua vez, tem seu olhar encantado direcionado à Nini. E assim está criado a opera de olhares entre os amantes que, logo em uma das primeiras cenas, explicita os jogos amorosos e de interesse que ocorrerá durante todo o filme.
Renoir filma o amor de forma bem particular e interessante. Para ele, o amor é indissociável ao poder e, nesse sentido, French Cancan talvez seja sua obra-prima. Alexandre e Paulo são submissos à Nini,…

Renoir is a director who just gets me. He knows exactly what I want from a film and delivers just that. This film is more than a beautifully rendered series of shots and a tribute to art itself, it’s a total blast! There is so much life packed into this and the heartfelt affection Renoir has for his characters and the world he’s created makes it such an appealing and warming watch.

It’s a celebration of love, of life, of community, and most importantly of dance. For our protagonists, the art of dance is life. They laugh as they polka together…they make immortal friendships as they cancan… they fall in love as they waltz.

And as the title implies, the…

There’s something kinda cool about seeing the old windmill of the Moulin Rouge all lit up, and the cancan dancers twirling riotously about, throwing themselves into the splits and showing us their legs and knickers. Ooh-la-la! It was definitely a highlight to see Édith Piaf in her cameo too. These things don’t happen until late in the film though, and too much of what comes before is preoccupied with a silly melodramatic love triangle, plus one. A young woman (Françoise Arnoul) has to choose between a humble baker who will give her a virtuous life, a rich foreigner who will literally make her a princess, or her dancing, as well as the director of the show (Jean Gabin), who is…