Stage and Spectacle: Three Films by Jean Renoir (The Golden Coach / French Cancan / Elena and Her Men) (The Criterion Collection)

The three color films that mark Jean Renoir's return to Europe might be surprising compared to his classics 30's films like RULES OF THE GAME, LA BETE HUMAINE, TONI or GRAND ILLUSION, with which Renoir became prominent as a master of realism. For instance, always preferring to shoot on location rather than in studio environments (TONI was one of the first major sound motion picture to be entrely shot on location with direct sound recording; a revolution at the time).THE GOLDEN COACH, FRENCH CANCAN and ELENA AND HER MEN are deliberately artificial, stylized, and burlesque. Note for instance the framings in THE GOLDEN COACH, in which Claude Renoir's camera is consciously and carefully placed to achieve symmetrical compositions. In comparison to the moving camera techniques of GRAND ILLUSION and RULES OF THE GAME that allowed him to capture the actions without missing the many crucial details in one, continuous long take, these three films (especially COACH and ELENA) may look very static. The acting style is also very much over the top.One of the supplements, the Jacques Rivette's interview, in which Renoir repeatingly insists that "truth" or "reality" can be only achieved through artifice and artifacts of the artistic medium, is extremely revealing about Renoir's changing his style, and that though the apparent style has changed, his philosophy about filmmaking is remarkably consistent.These three films are also created as comedies, though the contents are some of the most serious themes treated in cinema, and have a lot to do with cinema itself as a performing/representational art form. For each of the three films is profound analysis about performing in human life. FRENCH CANCAN is about the nature of performers, and the difficulties of that profession. THE GOLDEN COACH and ELENA AND HER MEN are, among other things, political farces, based on the extremely cynical idea that politics are nothing else but a matter of performance. Arguably, only Renoir could depict those themes as light-hearted comedies.Some notes should be made on the transfers of this new DVD edition. ELENA was shot with Eastmancolor film stock (one strip negative), and the transfer is created from the original negative. Excepts for optically-treated segments (dissolves and fade outs, fade ins) which show severe color fading, the DVD represents very much what the film should look like. And those color fadings are practically impossible to fix with today's technology.THE GOLDEN COACH and FRENCH CANCAN were originally shot with 3-strips Technicolor cameras. This system requires 3 B/W negatives running simultaneously, each of them recording one primary color. So it is impossible to just scan the original negatives to get the most faithful images. The DVD transfers for these 2 films are created from interpositives. For FRENCH CANCAN, it seems that a vintage dye-transfer print was used, and though it shows certain damages caused by age, the DVD represents faithfully the texture and details such as the material quality of the clothings that can be only captured on a dye-transfer Technicolor print, as well as the rather pale, pastel-like color palette that Renoir and art director Max Douy intended to depict the period: the story takes place in the heights of impressionism paintings.For THE GOLDEN COACH, the print used for the transfer is probably from the restoration and re-release in the early 90's (Martin Scorsese financed the American distribution; hence his introduction on the DVD). This restoration was important since before that, the film was virtually invisible, but nevertheless not a perfect one technically speaking. It does not have the richness of color of a dye-transfer Technicolor prints, particularly the reds and the blacks suffer a lot. Plus, certain shots, especially the extremely moving and revealing epilogue in which Renoir confesses through Camilla-Anna Magnani the sadness of working in performing arts, suffer a lot from the different shrinkage of each color-separation negatives. The colors are nearly dead, and they look out of focus. It's a pity that unlike the American studio's Technicolor classics with which a lot of financial and technical efforts are constantly made to put them back into shape, THE GOLDEN COACH, one of the greatest masterpieces of this color-format, is not yet properly restored.Criterion has already put GRAND ILLUSION and RULES OF THE GAME on market with beautiful DVD editions. Now, watching this new DVD sets, and especially watching the supplement BBC documentary about Renoir's career after the 40's, I must say that now they have to publish Renoir's first color film THE RIVER, which is one of the less-known masterpiece of Renoir's as well as a key film for the evolution of his style, on a DVD edition as accomplished as these.

"The Golden Coach" is a film personally admired by director Martin Scorsese and "Elena And Her Men" featuresIngrid Bergman at the peak of her beauty, but my favorite movie of the trio is "The French Cancan".That film captures the exciting energy of the Cancan as if you were there in person.The director of all three films is Jean Renoir, the son of the French Impressionist, Auguste Renoir, and heseems to have inherited his father's artistic eye.

The films in this collection added substantially to my appreciation of Jean Renoir. I found "The Golden Coach" enjoyable, as well as interesting for its camera work. I loved "French Cancan," which has become my favorite Renoir film. (I'm less enthusiastic about "The Rules of the Game" - partly since I don't much like the appearance of the director in that film.) The storyline is interesting and realistic; the characters are appealing; and the acting is excellent. I always enjoy Jean Gabin. Francoise Arnoul is very appealing as Nini. The final dance sequence is famously terrific, in spite of at least one dismissive reiview. Great entertainment, with just the right spice of realism alla Zola. "Elena and Her Men" isn't quite so well-reviewed elsewhere, but I really enjoyed it. An amusing farcical story, with an utterly delightful, tastefully sexy and intelligent performance by Ingrid Bergman in the lead. She always looked good, but was seldom so appealingly playful.

After the constraints of the US studio system, Renoir returns to France and more freedom. But this collection, while interesting for Renoir fans in showing his movement away from 'realism' and towards more and more theatricality, is uneven. In 'Elena', even Ingrid Bergman can't save the clunky, predictable plot and the rather crass humour. 'The Golden Coach' pushes theatricality to the limit and becomes almost hysterical. The gem in the collection - and that which makes it worth acquiring - is 'French Can Can'. It too is a kind of fairy tale, but absolutely coherent and contained within its own terms. There's a toughness, even a cynicism, under the sentiment and tenderness. The frame is busy, filled with detail and life and sexiness - and Jean Gabin (France's Spencer Tracy) is as charming as ever.

Great films by one of the greatest directors, worth it for “French Cancan” alone. The quality and packaging are very nice, as one can expect from Criterion.

Three cinema greats! Many of the shots in these films look like paintings by the director's father: Pierre Auguste Renoir. The final sequence of "French Can-Can" may be the finest musical sequence ever filmed. Not to be missed!

The DVD for "The Golden Coach" is for the most part fine, but the final minutes, which are crucial to the full impact of the film, are ruined by deplorable mastering. The scene appears to be out of focus and the colors are washed out to the point of barely being able make out what is happening. I believe Criterion made some kind of mastering error, because Martin Scorsese's introduction to the film explicitly refers to the wonderful restored ending of the film. Criterion should withdraw the DVD and offer a replacement.

Jean Renoir and Jean Gabin, no need to say more

Beautiful Criterion collection of Renoir's loose colour trilogy from the mid 50's celebrating his love of the theatre.MAJORThe Golden Coach (1953) follows a theatrical troupe on tour in South America and the tumult that is raised when the viceroy of a particular region having commissioned the manufacture of said lavish coach decides to present it as a gift to the fiery leading lady(the splendid Anna Magnani).Rich in colour and in Renoir's preferred English version,this is a sparkling musical comedy full of energy and complimented by music by VivaldiMINORElena and her Men (1956) Ingrid Bergman is the whole show as an impoverished Polish princess whose affect on important french politicans,businessmen and even the military could alter the french way of life.A wonderful crowd sequence and some nice "rules of the game"type stylings about love among the classes are let down by a ponderous second half which dissipates much of the fun that had gone before.Mel Ferrer acquits himself nicely as an admirer with slightly questionable motives.MASTERPIECEFrench Cancan (1955)Joyous biopic loosely based on the the building of the Moulin Rouge.The imcomparable Jean Gabin plays Danglard a theatre impresario who is determined to resurrect the cancan for the masses while at the same time mentoring a new mistress Nini(Francine Arnoul)in the art and keeping his current mistress Lola de Castro(a colourful Maria Felix)from finding out.Film opens with a exuberant dance hall sequence and ends with the opening night of such vitality and earthy choreography that while it may lack the slickness of American musicals it leaves them standing in terms of sheer cinematic joy.Everyone plays their part in this paean to another age .Renoir often spoke of rendering reality through artificiality- colour representing moods and seasons etc- as well as bemoaning progress as inherently bad for art as a whole.Here in this set he expresses his love of life and art through the joy that music and the comedy of the theatre can bring.

If you love Renoir films like I do, you should get this. The Golden Coach is perhaps the weakest of the three. It's about a troupe of actors from Italy in South America and their role in local politics. They came to the Americas with the golden coach on the same ship.French Cancan is Renoir's version of how the Moulin Rouge can into existance. The excellent actor, and one of Renoir's favorites, Jean Gabin plays the impresario who when other schemes fail, starts the Moulin Rouge. He also finds a young bakery worker and trains her to be a dancer and his lover. He also invents the French Cancan, calling it thus to give it an exotic (for the French) English feel.Elena and Her Men is the story of a woman, Ingrid Bergman, pursued by many men including those in government. This is based on a real story of how the woman's affair helped to bring down an attempt coup d'etat. Bergman is gorgeous.