I think this is a new genre that they're all sort of working their way through it and haven't got all the kinks worked out yet but it's a genre that works for me.

Wonderful Movie

Thanks for the memories!

Just perfect...

Portrait of a time. portrait of a legend. seductive for the genius of Jean Renoir. and for the inspired performances. and, sure, for the nostalgia of the viewer. an admirable Jean Gabin and a great embroidery of love stories, show world, rivalries and triumph. optimistic, romantic. and refreshing. and that does to it a special status. like refuge, splendid show, fairy tale and confession of a lost age.

Only being aware of Jacques Demy's work,I started looking round for other French Musicals. Finding his work in black and white to be magnificent, I was absolutely thrilled to discover a Musical by Jean Renoir (in colour!) which in excitement, led to me joining the Can- Can.The plot:Struggling to keep his nightclub going, (with his mistress Lola's belly dancing being the only one bringing the crowds in) Henri Danglard looks for new acts.Visiting a club in another town, Danglard eyes a suggestive dance called the Can-Can. Deciding to bring the dance to the club, Danglard crosses paths with star in waiting Nini, and decides to make her the star attraction. Battling with money issues,the bruised ego of Lola and the protected boyfriend of Nini, Danglard remains determined to keep the mill spinning and re-design his club,which shall be named the Moulin Rouge.View on the film:Retaining a touch of class even when showing suggestive dances, co- writer/(with André-Paul Antoine) director Jean Renoir & cinematographer Michel Kelber make their Moulin Rouge an immaculate creations, covered in lavish, chocolate wrapper colours, (and Georges Van Parys's thrilling score)with Renoir separating the stage acts into segments,and making each of them look like a sweet delight.Filling the club with a drizzle of frilly dresses, Renoir gives each dance sequence a glittering stylisation of the camera elegantly capturing each Musical number/dance move, and Renoir takes the viewer right to the back of the venue, so that they can become fully immense in the outpouring of chaos in the club.Keeping the fact that this is the Moulin Rouge secret for the first half, the screenplay by Renoir and Antoine whip up a fluffy Musical Melodrama,with the writers giving Danglard sharp comedic dialogue that shines even when Danglard is close to losing it all. Turning the behind the scenes windmill of the Moulin Rouge, the writers unveil a rich Melodrama with a firm comedic line dance, as the arrival of Nini leads to swift exchanges between Lola and Danglard, who finds his investors uneasy over the opening, when Nini's boyfriend pulls her away from the stage,and leaves a friction between her and Danglard.Retaining her "Queen of Mexican cinema" glamour, María Félix gives a wonderful performance as Lola,with Félix finely balancing Lola's abrupt manner to Nini with a limelight-grabbing on stage charisma. Gingerly stepping on stage, Françoise Arnoul gives an excellent performance as Nini,whose clear talents Arnoul keeps just behind the lights of Nini's nervousness and the Melodrama romance that turns Nini away from the stage. Fighting to keep the lights on,Jean Gabin gives an excellent performance as Danglard,with Gabin hitting Danglard's charm offensive with bombastic high notes ,which are threaded by a sensitivity over making sure everyone is dancing to the same tune,as Nini kicks off the French Can-Can.

Brilliantly made, colourful and gay, all the technical full-fledged resources of the vast experience of Jean Renoir is used in flamboyance, but it doesn't help. The story is hopelessly thin and superficial, almost stupid in its simplicity, the characters are all just casual types with very few exceptions, there is no drama at all except in flash moments, and even Jean Gabin falls flat and for once does not die in the end.Nevertheless, the finale is breathtaking with its ten minutes of ballet, and the film is worth watching if only for this, while all the rest is just flippant nonsense. There is not even any real sense of humour. His previous "The Golden Coach" was over-brimming with that, and it's surprising that Jean Renoir left that vital ingredient totally out of this movie more made 'at home'. Even the music is insipid.I saw it in black and white 50 years ago on television and was disappointed by its inanity. I thought it could be worth being given a second chance and in colour. but alas - it was still only a very casual flippant totally superficial entertainment of no real sense and meaning, in spite of all its technical brilliance. Jacques Demy would soon come with the real stuff on stage with much better music.

Although it doesn't seem very promising for a long stretch, Renoir's French Cancan ends up being an effortlessly charming film. The story is cliché: a laundry girl, Nini (Françoise Arnoul), is discovered by a night club owner, Danglard (Jean Gabin). Danglard steals her from her baker boyfriend and drops his current girlfriend, both of whom come back for their former lovers. Nini has to choose whether to go back to her humble life with the baker, go on with the show with her employer, oh, or become a princess, as a prince falls in love with her at one point, too. I'm glad the film didn't go for the most obvious choice, as a lesser film certainly would have. The film ends with the opening of Danglard's new night club, the Moulin Rouge, and a couple of gorgeous song and dance numbers. The first of them, "Complainte de la Butte," which also provides the base of most of the film's musical score, is simply one of the most gorgeous songs ever written, and Renoir himself wrote it. If you're a fan of Baz Luhrmann's 2001 film Moulin Rouge!, you'll recognize the tune, as it comes up near the beginning of that film, sung by Rufus Wainwright. Although it isn't very prominent in that film, everyone I know who owns the soundtrack loves it. In addition to having one of the most lovely songs ever written, French Cancan also boasts one of the cutest leading ladies ever to grace the screen. It's hard not to fall head-over-heels in love with that girl. 8/10.