I watched this movie three times at different ages of my life and always did enjoy it very much indeed. This Can-Can is an authentic explosion of joie de vivre, like Stanley Donen and Gene Kelly musical, but in French way. And a Jean Renoir nice tribute to his time, his friends, lovers, music and dances. It is at same time a show business chronicle of that age, full of affection and French mood. It is too a clear tribute to the Impressionism (people who likes impressionistic painters will like this picture). It is particularly a tribute to Toulouse-Lautrec and, of course, to Jean Renoir father, Pierre-Auguste. You will find hear a trustworthy and splendid colored recreation of some Renoir master work. Excellent casting, scenery, sound-effects and music. Even it tell us about the creation of Parisian Moulin Rouge, obviously it is a fiction story (and not very original by the way, as it fall down in the very well know moral that the show must go on). But the Jean Renoir production is great.
39 Reviews
Fun and pretty! Françoise Arnoul - Ou la la!
zetes26 January 2003
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.
Absinthe makes the heart grow fonder
cowboyandvampire24 December 2012
A charmingly amoral club owner sets his sights — amorous and financial — on a beautiful, naïve blue collar girl and propels her to the height of celebrity thanks to her titillating dance skills.
It may sound like a contemporary, cutting edge urban drama, but French Cancan was made in 1956 by famed director Jean Renoir. The movie — a darkish comedy with a progressive take on sexuality — chronicles the birth of the Moulin Rouge. Legendary Jean Gabin plays Danglard, a world-weary hustler, club owner and anti-hero for the ages, who makes no pretense of his philandering and amorous proclivities. He's casting about for a new lover and a new money making venture when his current club fails and he grows bored with his mistress. He discovers a beautiful young washer girl, Nini, whom he convinces to headline at his new "concept" club, the Moulin Rouge, making it a hot spot and her a celebrity before the doors even open.
It doesn't hurt that Nini's moody ex-lover — a sullen baker (le petit grump) — injures Danglard in a fight and an even moodier Russian count becomes suicidal because Nini spurns his advances. As the salacious headlines drive up public interest, they learn the club will feature the cancan in all it's thigh-revealing, petticoat-flashing, bawdy glory — a disreputable dance to begin with now fallen completely out of favor.
The movie is a riot with memorable characters, beautiful, dizzying club and dance scenes, a few titillating moments that must have pushed the limits 60 years ago and swooning French girls forever throwing themselves desperately into and out of the arms of their lovers. You almost forget that it's a musical, so seamlessly are the musical and dance scenes integrated into the plot.
Danglard's gangly side kick is hilarious as is the whistler. Most delightful of all was seeing and hearing the divine Edith Piaf on screen after listening in awe to her songs all these years.
The movie is best enjoyed with absinthe in honor of the absinthe consumed on screen — as fate would have it, we had some delightful Oregon-made absinthe that night — or lots of champagne.
-- www.cowboyandvampire.com --
It may sound like a contemporary, cutting edge urban drama, but French Cancan was made in 1956 by famed director Jean Renoir. The movie — a darkish comedy with a progressive take on sexuality — chronicles the birth of the Moulin Rouge. Legendary Jean Gabin plays Danglard, a world-weary hustler, club owner and anti-hero for the ages, who makes no pretense of his philandering and amorous proclivities. He's casting about for a new lover and a new money making venture when his current club fails and he grows bored with his mistress. He discovers a beautiful young washer girl, Nini, whom he convinces to headline at his new "concept" club, the Moulin Rouge, making it a hot spot and her a celebrity before the doors even open.
It doesn't hurt that Nini's moody ex-lover — a sullen baker (le petit grump) — injures Danglard in a fight and an even moodier Russian count becomes suicidal because Nini spurns his advances. As the salacious headlines drive up public interest, they learn the club will feature the cancan in all it's thigh-revealing, petticoat-flashing, bawdy glory — a disreputable dance to begin with now fallen completely out of favor.
The movie is a riot with memorable characters, beautiful, dizzying club and dance scenes, a few titillating moments that must have pushed the limits 60 years ago and swooning French girls forever throwing themselves desperately into and out of the arms of their lovers. You almost forget that it's a musical, so seamlessly are the musical and dance scenes integrated into the plot.
Danglard's gangly side kick is hilarious as is the whistler. Most delightful of all was seeing and hearing the divine Edith Piaf on screen after listening in awe to her songs all these years.
The movie is best enjoyed with absinthe in honor of the absinthe consumed on screen — as fate would have it, we had some delightful Oregon-made absinthe that night — or lots of champagne.
-- www.cowboyandvampire.com --
Marvelous!
Terrell-45 August 2004
The story is simple but the execution is marvelous. A Belle Epoque impresario, down on his financial luck, is going to open a new club, the Moulin Rouge, with a new dance, the French cancan. He encounters a working girl and makes her a dancer. She'll become a star. There are several crises to overcome before that happens.
The movie is Jean Renoir's tribute to show business, and he puts it on the screen with color, verve, humor, and humanity. There are wonderful performances by all the actors. The leads are Jean Gabin as Henri Danglard, the impresario; Francoise Arnoul as Nini, the girl who'll become a star; and Maria Felix as Lola de Castro, an overwhelmingly tempestuous beauty and Danglard's lover at the start. Gabin exudes confidence, worldly humor and dedication to show business. He even dances a bit. Arnoul is first rate, too. It looks like she was doing her own dances, and as an actress think of a young Leslie Caron with brains and charm.
The climax of the movie is the opening of the club, with Felix's star dance, comic songs, a whistler, a Danglar-discovered singer, all moving toward the introduction of the French cancan. The crises happen and are resolved. Then the cancan explodes. Dancing girls come bursting out from the stage, the front of the theater, through posters, down ropes from the balcony. The house swirls with the black tie and tails of the swells and the garish colors of the dancers' gowns. The cancan number lasts probably ten or fifteen minutes or so, all music and gaiety, all high kicks and splits. It's amazing when row after row of the dancers, moving toward the camera through the audience, leap up, legs extended straight forward and backward, backs arched, then land on the dance floor in full splits. I didn't know whether to shout or wince.
The last scene of the movie is outside the club, shot from the cobblestone street looking at the entrance. It's a medium shot and from the side street a happy, inebriated fellow in black tie and top hat staggers across, pauses to tip his hat at the camera, then staggers off. A completely charming ending.
This really is a marvelous movie.
The movie is Jean Renoir's tribute to show business, and he puts it on the screen with color, verve, humor, and humanity. There are wonderful performances by all the actors. The leads are Jean Gabin as Henri Danglard, the impresario; Francoise Arnoul as Nini, the girl who'll become a star; and Maria Felix as Lola de Castro, an overwhelmingly tempestuous beauty and Danglard's lover at the start. Gabin exudes confidence, worldly humor and dedication to show business. He even dances a bit. Arnoul is first rate, too. It looks like she was doing her own dances, and as an actress think of a young Leslie Caron with brains and charm.
The climax of the movie is the opening of the club, with Felix's star dance, comic songs, a whistler, a Danglar-discovered singer, all moving toward the introduction of the French cancan. The crises happen and are resolved. Then the cancan explodes. Dancing girls come bursting out from the stage, the front of the theater, through posters, down ropes from the balcony. The house swirls with the black tie and tails of the swells and the garish colors of the dancers' gowns. The cancan number lasts probably ten or fifteen minutes or so, all music and gaiety, all high kicks and splits. It's amazing when row after row of the dancers, moving toward the camera through the audience, leap up, legs extended straight forward and backward, backs arched, then land on the dance floor in full splits. I didn't know whether to shout or wince.
The last scene of the movie is outside the club, shot from the cobblestone street looking at the entrance. It's a medium shot and from the side street a happy, inebriated fellow in black tie and top hat staggers across, pauses to tip his hat at the camera, then staggers off. A completely charming ending.
This really is a marvelous movie.
"We must be mad to pay to see Nini's thighs"
ackstasis15 January 2009
I haven't yet been completely blown away by a Jean Renoir film. The closest candidate so far was the wonderful 'A Day in the Country (1936),' which unfortunately suffered the handicap of being unfinished. Even so, I find the director's films to be extraordinarily pleasant viewing, and I'd much sooner sit down for a Renoir than I would for, say, a Godard or Fellini film. 'French Cancan (1954)' is a completely pleasant, and entirely unpretentious, musical comedy that goes by so breezily that you're apt to forget that you're watching the work of France's most respected filmmaker. Less concerned with cultural satire than 'The Rules of the Game (1939),' the film is instead similar in tone to 'Elena and Her Men (1956),' a completely inconsequential piece of cinema that is nonetheless a lot of fun to watch. Both of these films were shot in exquisite Technicolor, of which Renoir takes full advantage, filling the frame with glorious costumes, colours and people.
Henri Danglard (Jean Gabin) is a respected theatre producer who lives the high life, despite relying upon financial backers to sustain his extravagant lifestyle. A charming chap, and convincingly debonair given his age, Danglard shares the company of the beautiful but temperamental Lola de Castro (María Félix), into whose bed many have attempted to climb (and probably with little resistance). When Danglard woos a pretty young laundry-worker, Nini (Françoise Arnoul), into dancing the cancan for him, Lola is overrun with jealousy, and all sorts of anarchy takes place amidst this romantic rivalry. Meanwhile, a handsome European prince (Giani Esposito) offers Nini his hand in marriage, but she's not willing to make such a dishonest commitment, more inclined to stay with Danglard, who inevitably plots to discard her as soon as his next promising starlet comes along. Jean Gabin, who had previously worked with Renoir in the 1930s, is terrific in the main role, overcoming his mature age to succeed as a potential lover.
It's interesting to compare Hollywood films of the 1950s with their European counterparts. Thanks to the Production Code, most American romantic comedies kept the romance almost entirely platonic, whereas here Renoir's characters speak of sex and adultery as though it is a perfectly acceptable practice. Even the adorable Françoise Arnoul, who occasionally reminded me of Shirley MacLaine, is treated as an openly sexual women, and not just because her character specialises in a dance designed purely to display as much leg as possible. Like many of Renoir's films, the characters themselves aren't clearly defined, and so it's difficult to form an emotional attachment. Indeed, only in the final act does Danglard come clean with the extent to which he romantically exploits his dance recruits, though even this moment is overshadowed by the premiere show of the Moulin Rouge. Perhaps it is through his caricatures that Renoir is making a quip about bourgeois French society that they're all hiding behind fallacious identities and intentions. Or am I looking too far into this quaint musical comedy?
Henri Danglard (Jean Gabin) is a respected theatre producer who lives the high life, despite relying upon financial backers to sustain his extravagant lifestyle. A charming chap, and convincingly debonair given his age, Danglard shares the company of the beautiful but temperamental Lola de Castro (María Félix), into whose bed many have attempted to climb (and probably with little resistance). When Danglard woos a pretty young laundry-worker, Nini (Françoise Arnoul), into dancing the cancan for him, Lola is overrun with jealousy, and all sorts of anarchy takes place amidst this romantic rivalry. Meanwhile, a handsome European prince (Giani Esposito) offers Nini his hand in marriage, but she's not willing to make such a dishonest commitment, more inclined to stay with Danglard, who inevitably plots to discard her as soon as his next promising starlet comes along. Jean Gabin, who had previously worked with Renoir in the 1930s, is terrific in the main role, overcoming his mature age to succeed as a potential lover.
It's interesting to compare Hollywood films of the 1950s with their European counterparts. Thanks to the Production Code, most American romantic comedies kept the romance almost entirely platonic, whereas here Renoir's characters speak of sex and adultery as though it is a perfectly acceptable practice. Even the adorable Françoise Arnoul, who occasionally reminded me of Shirley MacLaine, is treated as an openly sexual women, and not just because her character specialises in a dance designed purely to display as much leg as possible. Like many of Renoir's films, the characters themselves aren't clearly defined, and so it's difficult to form an emotional attachment. Indeed, only in the final act does Danglard come clean with the extent to which he romantically exploits his dance recruits, though even this moment is overshadowed by the premiere show of the Moulin Rouge. Perhaps it is through his caricatures that Renoir is making a quip about bourgeois French society that they're all hiding behind fallacious identities and intentions. Or am I looking too far into this quaint musical comedy?
An excellent movie
chris-45930 June 1999
"French Cancan" is one of my favorite all time movies. It's an excellent film. There's color, there's humor, there's music. It's a very good portrait of the so called Belle Époque, though Jean Renoir's priorities were always to show a creation, a fantasie. So the film isn't a historical movie. The final sequences in which the girls dance cancan are unforgettable images. It's a film you shouldn't miss.
enjoyable by the numbers musical
planktonrules24 October 2005
This was a pleasant musical about the creation of the Moulin Rouge dance hall. In many ways, this reminds me of the Hollywood musicals of the 40s and 50s, in that it has many clichés leading up to the inevitable conclusion ("will the show STILL go on?"). While of course none of this is new, it was enjoyable and well made. The musical numbers at the end are frenetic and beautiful to watch. In many ways it reminds me of a sexier version of THE GREAT ZIEGFELD. In real life, Ziegfeld was quite the player but this was sanitized in the American film. But, in FRENCH CANCAN, the characters have fully functioning libidos--but nothing is really shown, so the movie is okay for kids.
Nothing new but well done nevertheless.
Nothing new but well done nevertheless.
Great musical
bob99819 April 2006
This is my favorite Renoir from the Fifties. It's the story of how Henri Danglard built and launched the Moulin Rouge nightclub; we see the workmen blasting at the site to get construction underway, and the training of the dancers. Finally, the giddiness of opening night and the long sequence of cancan dancing. Financial problems and the ego displays of the performers are described.
Gabin is in great form as the easy-going Danglard--see him deal humorously with Nini's violent boyfriend. Gianni Esposito is moving as the wistful Prince who is courting Nini. Maria Felix, with that amazon's body, is imposing as the egotistical Lola, Danglard's first lover. Finally Françoise Arnoul as Nini the washing girl who ends up dancing for Danglard, and becoming his girl, is just stunning; her loveliness and pert charm will win you over.
A bonus: we get Edith Piaf, Patachou, André Claveau and other stars in cameos playing the stars of a century ago who ruled over the Moulin rouge.
Gabin is in great form as the easy-going Danglard--see him deal humorously with Nini's violent boyfriend. Gianni Esposito is moving as the wistful Prince who is courting Nini. Maria Felix, with that amazon's body, is imposing as the egotistical Lola, Danglard's first lover. Finally Françoise Arnoul as Nini the washing girl who ends up dancing for Danglard, and becoming his girl, is just stunning; her loveliness and pert charm will win you over.
A bonus: we get Edith Piaf, Patachou, André Claveau and other stars in cameos playing the stars of a century ago who ruled over the Moulin rouge.
A frothy French musical
gbill-7487725 August 2020
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 her lover. Gosh, what will she decide?
I liked the sexual honesty that wasn't possible under the Production Code in America. One example of this is when Arnoul's character takes the job to learn dancing but assumes it means she'll have to sleep with the director. Because she wants her boyfriend to be her first lover, she goes off to him and it's clear they have sex. Afterwards the director tells her no, that forcing performers to have sex as a job requirement is a thing of the past (hahahaha, riiiiight). Another example is María Félix, who is often scantily clad and in the bed of more than one man.
However, to me Jean Gabin was too old for this part - he was 51 and looked at least a decade older - and I hated how his character is played as the virtuous one. His speech at the end, justifying his sleeping around in order to coerce the young girl to dance, made me want to gag. Also, while the film is visually pleasing with all its pastel colors, it presents a Moulin Rouge that is too tidied up and prettified for my taste, and I would have preferred a little more realism and pathos. I'm just a grouch though; this is obviously not the target, and it's simply a frothy French version of the big Hollywood musicals of the period. There are some nice little bits sprinkled in here and there and I might have liked it a little more on a different day, but I think it either needed more musical numbers, a better story, or a different leading man to be a film I truly loved.
I liked the sexual honesty that wasn't possible under the Production Code in America. One example of this is when Arnoul's character takes the job to learn dancing but assumes it means she'll have to sleep with the director. Because she wants her boyfriend to be her first lover, she goes off to him and it's clear they have sex. Afterwards the director tells her no, that forcing performers to have sex as a job requirement is a thing of the past (hahahaha, riiiiight). Another example is María Félix, who is often scantily clad and in the bed of more than one man.
However, to me Jean Gabin was too old for this part - he was 51 and looked at least a decade older - and I hated how his character is played as the virtuous one. His speech at the end, justifying his sleeping around in order to coerce the young girl to dance, made me want to gag. Also, while the film is visually pleasing with all its pastel colors, it presents a Moulin Rouge that is too tidied up and prettified for my taste, and I would have preferred a little more realism and pathos. I'm just a grouch though; this is obviously not the target, and it's simply a frothy French version of the big Hollywood musicals of the period. There are some nice little bits sprinkled in here and there and I might have liked it a little more on a different day, but I think it either needed more musical numbers, a better story, or a different leading man to be a film I truly loved.
Wonderful film
gudpaljoey16 November 2007
I just viewed Jean Renoir's wonderful film, French Can Can. It is a visual delight and a great entertainment. The recently produced Moulin Rouge pales by comparison. I didn't quite get all of the praise that the recent movie received. Now I'm convinced more than ever, that my appraisal was correct after seeing a master film maker like Jean Renoir's version of the same story. He succeeded in getting great performances out of his entire cast, and the great French actor, Jean Gabin was in rare form. The dance sequence near the end was one of the most exciting one I'd ever seen. It was long, but I didn't want it to end. This film deserves to receive more recognition than it's got.
FRENCH CANCAN is Renoir's more entertainment-proffering output with an appealing flair of being flamboyant and "French"
lasttimeisaw20 December 2014
FRENCH CANCAN is a highly pleasurable extravaganza of Gallo musical and comedy from the cinematic titan Jean Renoir, placed within his marvelous oeuvre, the film doesn't have a chance to be a standout, but compared with its follow-up ELENA AND HER MEN (1956, 5/10), Renoir's star-vehicle for Ingrid Bergman, this film stuns in its spectacular scenic management of its pay-off moment, the much anticipated French cancan performance, which transpires to be a truly sensational delight and a sumptuous visual spectacle.
The story follows a corny template, Henri Danglard (Gabin), is a theater producer and proprietor of "Le Paravent Chinois" café, whose business is in jeopardy, so he intends to revive the once-famous cancan dance as a strategy to strike back at the Moulin Rouge, accidentally meets a local washerwoman Nini (Arnoul), Henri is amazed by her dancing skills and sees her potential, and decides to make her the star of the show, they engage in a seemingly chaste relationship which soon escalates into mutual attraction, after that, chain reactions of jealousies, from Henri's current mistress Lola (Félix) and Nini's boyfriend Paulo (Pastorino), unrequited love pursuit (Esposito, as the Prince Alexandre from Egypt) and betrayals duly ensue, but, no worries, it is a French comedy, all but mirth will dissipate thanks to the final opening show with the elongated cancan choreography, it leaves you a gratifying smile on the face with the aftertaste of amazement and gaiety.
The film is shot in vivid palette with fluid editing to present a top-notch viewing experience which doesn't weather too much 60 years later, also the production team carves out a moderate setting but embedded with haute couture sumptuousness, and Édith Piaf also contributes a cameo for a sonorous rendition.
The tone is undeviatingly light-hearted, also boiled over with large ensemble uproar and farcical elements to whitewash the usual targets of a middle-aged womanizer's moral criterion and the gold-digger behavior of low-ranked class. Gabin extends his leading man élan to be the savior of a young girl's dead-end life, stately debonair, but no hesitation to be a heart-breaker when the ugly time arrives. Arnoul is a talented dancer, but doesn't acquire her own personality in the film, while Félix, steals the limelight first with her belly- dancing, subsequently with her acerbic bluntness, she never allow herself to be beaten up and always can find a way out under any circumstances, that is a winner's altitude!
Broadly FRENCH CANCAN is Renoir's more entertainment-proffering output with an appealing flair of being flamboyant and "French", you will not necessarily feel overwhelmed by its content, but in the end of day, the cancan dancers and festive music can truly soothe your nerve, perk up your spirit and inveigle your toes to move a bit on the floor, which is a great achievement on its own merits indeed.
The story follows a corny template, Henri Danglard (Gabin), is a theater producer and proprietor of "Le Paravent Chinois" café, whose business is in jeopardy, so he intends to revive the once-famous cancan dance as a strategy to strike back at the Moulin Rouge, accidentally meets a local washerwoman Nini (Arnoul), Henri is amazed by her dancing skills and sees her potential, and decides to make her the star of the show, they engage in a seemingly chaste relationship which soon escalates into mutual attraction, after that, chain reactions of jealousies, from Henri's current mistress Lola (Félix) and Nini's boyfriend Paulo (Pastorino), unrequited love pursuit (Esposito, as the Prince Alexandre from Egypt) and betrayals duly ensue, but, no worries, it is a French comedy, all but mirth will dissipate thanks to the final opening show with the elongated cancan choreography, it leaves you a gratifying smile on the face with the aftertaste of amazement and gaiety.
The film is shot in vivid palette with fluid editing to present a top-notch viewing experience which doesn't weather too much 60 years later, also the production team carves out a moderate setting but embedded with haute couture sumptuousness, and Édith Piaf also contributes a cameo for a sonorous rendition.
The tone is undeviatingly light-hearted, also boiled over with large ensemble uproar and farcical elements to whitewash the usual targets of a middle-aged womanizer's moral criterion and the gold-digger behavior of low-ranked class. Gabin extends his leading man élan to be the savior of a young girl's dead-end life, stately debonair, but no hesitation to be a heart-breaker when the ugly time arrives. Arnoul is a talented dancer, but doesn't acquire her own personality in the film, while Félix, steals the limelight first with her belly- dancing, subsequently with her acerbic bluntness, she never allow herself to be beaten up and always can find a way out under any circumstances, that is a winner's altitude!
Broadly FRENCH CANCAN is Renoir's more entertainment-proffering output with an appealing flair of being flamboyant and "French", you will not necessarily feel overwhelmed by its content, but in the end of day, the cancan dancers and festive music can truly soothe your nerve, perk up your spirit and inveigle your toes to move a bit on the floor, which is a great achievement on its own merits indeed.
Colorful, Evocative Recreation of Lost Theatrical Glory--plus Jean Gabin!
museumofdave21 March 2013
I would give this evocation of the early Moulin Rouge a high rating for the final fifteen minutes alone, a dazzling recreation of what might have been the riotous presentation of the French Cancan during the Belle Epoque, all color and noise and organized mayhem.
This is an old-fashioned film about a theatrical entrepreneur who turns working girls into stars--one at a time. Likable roué Jean Gabin plays Danglar with great aplomb, and having worked in the theatre myself, recognize the fine backstage moment in the film where the creator does not hurry to see his final creation; it is a quiet, subtle moment, and like much in the film, can be lost in the build-up to the opening of France's most famous dance hall; the color is mint Technicolor, the acting spot on, and, while old-fashioned, the film is a lovely evocation of an imagined past.
This is an old-fashioned film about a theatrical entrepreneur who turns working girls into stars--one at a time. Likable roué Jean Gabin plays Danglar with great aplomb, and having worked in the theatre myself, recognize the fine backstage moment in the film where the creator does not hurry to see his final creation; it is a quiet, subtle moment, and like much in the film, can be lost in the build-up to the opening of France's most famous dance hall; the color is mint Technicolor, the acting spot on, and, while old-fashioned, the film is a lovely evocation of an imagined past.
A disappointment of superficial flippancy all the way in spite of technical brilliance
clanciai3 August 2017
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.
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.
If in Cannes ev'ry tan courtesan can ....
writers_reign16 December 2003
Acknowledgments to Cole Porter from whose lyric CanCan (the title song of his 1953 Broadway show of the same name) I take my one line summary. This is, purely and simply, a Valentine to Paris, the Belle Epoque, the Impressionists, you-name-it. As such it is both stunning and sumptuous.Gabin - who began in the French Music Halls - is superb, but then when isn't he, Arnoul is a revelation. More? Well, the photography is ... the music is ... the ambience is ... aw, what the hell, go see it, do yourself a great big favor. 9/10
Renoir, Gabin, Felix - how can you miss?
blanche-214 April 2015
Jean Renoir's gorgeous film, French Cancan, is a symphony of color, dancing, singing, and humor.
It stars Jean Gabin as Henri Danglard, a club owner who is hitting the skids with his café "Le Paravent Chinois" which features his mistress, Lola, played by the legendary, mega Mexican star, "La Dona," Maria Felix.
Danglard has an idea of reviving the cancan, which he has seen on the Montmarte. In 1890, it is considered an old dance, but he renames it French cancan and decides to have it in a fabulous new club, the Moulin Rouge.
He becomes interested in a young laundress, Nini, who impresses him with her dancing one night when he dances with her. He wants to star her in his new show.
This is easier said than done. There's jealous Lola and Nini's baker boyfriend, and a prince who falls for her. While they tug at her heart, Nini has fallen for Danglard.
This is a fun movie, and a chance for me, anyway, to see Maria Felix. I had only seen her interviewed when she was quite old, and a movie in my high school Spanish class. She was statuesque with a strong face and looks quite beautiful here, displaying sophistication and toughness.
Gabin, of course, is wonderful - this is the first time I've seen him in anything but a depressing drama - he emanates charm.
Great-looking film with the Renoir touches - so many scenes look like paintings. Highly recommended.
It stars Jean Gabin as Henri Danglard, a club owner who is hitting the skids with his café "Le Paravent Chinois" which features his mistress, Lola, played by the legendary, mega Mexican star, "La Dona," Maria Felix.
Danglard has an idea of reviving the cancan, which he has seen on the Montmarte. In 1890, it is considered an old dance, but he renames it French cancan and decides to have it in a fabulous new club, the Moulin Rouge.
He becomes interested in a young laundress, Nini, who impresses him with her dancing one night when he dances with her. He wants to star her in his new show.
This is easier said than done. There's jealous Lola and Nini's baker boyfriend, and a prince who falls for her. While they tug at her heart, Nini has fallen for Danglard.
This is a fun movie, and a chance for me, anyway, to see Maria Felix. I had only seen her interviewed when she was quite old, and a movie in my high school Spanish class. She was statuesque with a strong face and looks quite beautiful here, displaying sophistication and toughness.
Gabin, of course, is wonderful - this is the first time I've seen him in anything but a depressing drama - he emanates charm.
Great-looking film with the Renoir touches - so many scenes look like paintings. Highly recommended.
Flawless
youbroketherules25 January 2008
I am not a fan of musicals, but I am a huge fan of Jean Renoir and Jean Gabin. I rented this movie on a whim and was pleasantly surprised even expecting greatness from the classic director. This movie is BEAUTIFUL. The shots are like oil paintings with motion, something a lot of directors strive for but Renoir MASTERS. I cannot express how much this movie transcends itself... it's not really a musical, it just has a couple of well-placed musical numbers and a grand dancing finale. But there is something about this movie in particular which makes you feel absolute JOY when watching it.
I am a fan of foreign art films, but I'm also a meathead who loves things like Die Hard and Schwarzenegger movies. I get very easily turned off by things that are overly happy or in "la la land," but this movie has an overwhelming positive energy that is just irresistible -- not to mention every frame is gorgeous and the plot is good. 10 out of 10.
I am a fan of foreign art films, but I'm also a meathead who loves things like Die Hard and Schwarzenegger movies. I get very easily turned off by things that are overly happy or in "la la land," but this movie has an overwhelming positive energy that is just irresistible -- not to mention every frame is gorgeous and the plot is good. 10 out of 10.
Jean Renoir's light-hearted musical carnival on café-concert which also has that typical illicit romance
SAMTHEBESTEST17 October 2023
French Cancan (1955) :
Brief Review -
Jean Renoir's light-hearted musical carnival on café-concert which also has that typical illicit romance. By the 1950s, Hollywood had been the one and only boss at musicals, and even to date, they haven't been matched. Even Hollywood has picked many Broadway plays and other foreign language plays to make musical feature films, yet they added their touch with their surroundings and stars. French Cancan is literally a story-less film. I just felt like they robbed it and tried to gather broken pieces to make a script. A theatre producer sees a girl doing the cancan and decides to give her a career in theatre. During rehearsals, she becomes his mistress. His previous mistress spoils the theatre, and they are left on the street. One of the girl's lovers attempts suicide when she tells everybody that she is the mistress of the theatre producer, and things get back to the cancan rehearsals. As expected, there is a change of heart at the last moment and heartbreak too, but all of it is just fun. The entire romance/love angle is pathetic. It felt the same for many Renoir films earlier, and it just got worse here. I couldn't understand the logic of a boy asking the girl not to become a showgirl and marry him but to lose everything if she goes on the show as if she were going to the brothel. I am not familiar with the Parisian café-concert, but if that was it, then I don't think there was anything special. Though it might have a local impact that I'm unaware of. Anyway, the film suits the carnival theme and doesn't bore except for some irritating romantic moments. Jean Gabin remains a standout, as the film literally stands on his shoulders. Renoir's musical is fine for a one-time watch, but nothing more than that. Some gorgeous ladies in the film might appeal to you more than the entire film.
RATING - 6/10*
By - #samthebestest.
Jean Renoir's light-hearted musical carnival on café-concert which also has that typical illicit romance. By the 1950s, Hollywood had been the one and only boss at musicals, and even to date, they haven't been matched. Even Hollywood has picked many Broadway plays and other foreign language plays to make musical feature films, yet they added their touch with their surroundings and stars. French Cancan is literally a story-less film. I just felt like they robbed it and tried to gather broken pieces to make a script. A theatre producer sees a girl doing the cancan and decides to give her a career in theatre. During rehearsals, she becomes his mistress. His previous mistress spoils the theatre, and they are left on the street. One of the girl's lovers attempts suicide when she tells everybody that she is the mistress of the theatre producer, and things get back to the cancan rehearsals. As expected, there is a change of heart at the last moment and heartbreak too, but all of it is just fun. The entire romance/love angle is pathetic. It felt the same for many Renoir films earlier, and it just got worse here. I couldn't understand the logic of a boy asking the girl not to become a showgirl and marry him but to lose everything if she goes on the show as if she were going to the brothel. I am not familiar with the Parisian café-concert, but if that was it, then I don't think there was anything special. Though it might have a local impact that I'm unaware of. Anyway, the film suits the carnival theme and doesn't bore except for some irritating romantic moments. Jean Gabin remains a standout, as the film literally stands on his shoulders. Renoir's musical is fine for a one-time watch, but nothing more than that. Some gorgeous ladies in the film might appeal to you more than the entire film.
RATING - 6/10*
By - #samthebestest.
Utter Perfection
jromanbaker17 June 2021
Who cares if this is what really happened ? It is up there on the screen that it really happens. And this must be one of the most joyous films ever made. Renoir directs to perfection, and the camera seems hungry to catch every gesture, every song, every dance in that creation of how the Moulin Rouge was made. And a cast that takes your breath away ( it certainly caught at mine between laughter and tears ) and for me Francoise Arnoul, that very great actor steals every scene that she is in. Causing emotional and sexual havoc among her admirers and lovers she at last becomes her true self; in the cancan dance which opens the Moulin Rouge. I must also mention Jean Gabin who discovers her, promotes her and temporarily loves her, who is at his greatest in this film. Giani Esposito, perhaps best known for the equally fine film directed by Jacques Rivette ' Paris Nous Appartient. ' deserves attention. And what a beautiful man he was as well, giving at least two of the finest performances on film. His love for Francoise Arnoul is heart breaking to watch, and shows that in this whirling, frantic, joyful movement of life itself there is an even more profound love. Renoir shows us that life is in the moment, and that this is perhaps all we have and the finale of this masterpiece is utter perfection in showing just that, and as the word ' Fin ' comes up on the screen just watch a drunk, leaving the Moulin Rouge to dream his dream of the moment, and of life itself. Like the rest of the film it is utter perfection.
A joyful explosion of skirts
evening123 July 2023
Warning: Spoilers
This movie is great for the cancan scenes, and opportunities to enjoy the wonderful screen presence of Jean Gabin, but it's overly long by a half-hour and marred by melodrama.
Screen icon Gabin, even with gray hair and a cane, is always a delight to watch. I very much wanted to waltz with him!
Francoise Arnoul is also good as laundress-turned-high-kicking chorus girl, but I tired of the histrionics of Marie Felix as a cast-off lover of the impresario. One never cares about this fiery drama queen, but is forced to spend a lot of time with her.
A cameo appearance by Edith Piaf is wonderful, albeit too short. And strains of Offenbach, so much associated with the petticoat-baring dance form, add excitement as the film nears its dazzling conclusion.
Director Jean Renoir does a painterly job of conjuring scenes of the Moulin Rouge immortalized in works by his famous father.
Screen icon Gabin, even with gray hair and a cane, is always a delight to watch. I very much wanted to waltz with him!
Francoise Arnoul is also good as laundress-turned-high-kicking chorus girl, but I tired of the histrionics of Marie Felix as a cast-off lover of the impresario. One never cares about this fiery drama queen, but is forced to spend a lot of time with her.
A cameo appearance by Edith Piaf is wonderful, albeit too short. And strains of Offenbach, so much associated with the petticoat-baring dance form, add excitement as the film nears its dazzling conclusion.
Director Jean Renoir does a painterly job of conjuring scenes of the Moulin Rouge immortalized in works by his famous father.
Refreshing French Twist
GHMey8 July 2001
There are frames in this film that could be Renoir paintings with vivid colors against muted backgrounds. The humorous combination of sexual honesty and innocence is refreshing in this fifties film and makes palatable the old story line of the ingenue that becomes a star. The can-can number at the end seems realistic and exciting but not over the top as in an American dance sequence.
Only the French can..
alexx66823 November 2010
This movie of Jean Renoir (son of the impressionist painter) uses vibrant coloring to convey a similar impressionist effect, which is only half successful, seeing as the crisp focusing (understandable given the year of release) negates the other major impressionist characteristic, namely the visual haze that represents a unique moment in time. As a result, the scenes where the film really excels are the two scenes that feature big crowd movement: one during the building of Moulin Rouge (almost slapstick), and the other during the theatrical dance apotheosis of the end.
Both of these sequences are visual feasts, whereas the "fuzziness" due to the massive choreography and relentless movement, combined with the intense coloring, conveys an elegant impressionist display.
Visual characteristics aside, the film represents a continuous bittersweet shift between comedic and dramatic elements, as well as a constant parade of love triangles. The ending with the impresario enjoying the show in a melancholic manner in the background is one final touch of class. If you come across it, don't hesitate to watch it.
Both of these sequences are visual feasts, whereas the "fuzziness" due to the massive choreography and relentless movement, combined with the intense coloring, conveys an elegant impressionist display.
Visual characteristics aside, the film represents a continuous bittersweet shift between comedic and dramatic elements, as well as a constant parade of love triangles. The ending with the impresario enjoying the show in a melancholic manner in the background is one final touch of class. If you come across it, don't hesitate to watch it.
refreshing
Kirpianuscus2 August 2018
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.
Technicolor musical comedy with a French twist
marissas751 June 2008
As a longtime admirer of the 2001 film "Moulin Rouge" and a more recent admirer of Jean Renoir's film-making, I knew that I'd inevitably watch his "French Cancan" sooner or later. The movie tells a fictionalized story of the opening of the Moulin Rouge nightclub. The impresario Danglard (Jean Gabin) tries to turn Montmartre laundress Nini (Françoise Arnoul) into a cancan star, without arousing the wrath of his tempestuous mistress, the belly-dancing Lola (Maria Felix). This is just one of several love triangles in "French Cancan"--true to stereotype, these French showbiz folk are always falling in love.
Renoir directs with his typical gentle humor and attention to supporting characters, and also wrote the lyrics to a beautiful waltz song prominently featured in the movie. Gabin perfectly incarnates the aging French playboy hero. Arnoul is a cute redhead who holds her own in the dance numbers, except for a few trick shots where a double is obviously used.
"French Cancan" is billed as a musical comedy and while there are lots of musical numbers that take place on the nightclub stage, etc., only one character, Casimir, ever breaks into song in the middle of conversation. The actor who plays him, Philippe Clay, is fun to watch--a really tall, skinny young man who sings, dances, and does contortions.
The movie ends with a long cancan sequence, as all the characters learn to triumph over their problems and make art together. The dancing is much more brightly lit and coherently edited than in "Moulin Rouge"; in fact, if I have one complaint about "French Cancan," it's that the whole thing is a little too Technicolor. Even when Nini experiences heartbreak or someone sings a melancholy song, the lighting is bright and flat, no shadows intruding. Yes, the result is a cheerful and warmhearted musical comedy; it's just that I can't help thinking that things weren't ever this colorful and innocent in real life.
Renoir directs with his typical gentle humor and attention to supporting characters, and also wrote the lyrics to a beautiful waltz song prominently featured in the movie. Gabin perfectly incarnates the aging French playboy hero. Arnoul is a cute redhead who holds her own in the dance numbers, except for a few trick shots where a double is obviously used.
"French Cancan" is billed as a musical comedy and while there are lots of musical numbers that take place on the nightclub stage, etc., only one character, Casimir, ever breaks into song in the middle of conversation. The actor who plays him, Philippe Clay, is fun to watch--a really tall, skinny young man who sings, dances, and does contortions.
The movie ends with a long cancan sequence, as all the characters learn to triumph over their problems and make art together. The dancing is much more brightly lit and coherently edited than in "Moulin Rouge"; in fact, if I have one complaint about "French Cancan," it's that the whole thing is a little too Technicolor. Even when Nini experiences heartbreak or someone sings a melancholy song, the lighting is bright and flat, no shadows intruding. Yes, the result is a cheerful and warmhearted musical comedy; it's just that I can't help thinking that things weren't ever this colorful and innocent in real life.
Renoir, 10; Hollywood, 5, Luhrmann, 0
david-197616 December 2006
Warning: Spoilers
Jean Renoir's homage to the Paris of the late 19th century is beautiful in many ways. Not only does it appear to have been photographed by Toulouse-Lautrec and Mucha, it portrays the geographic Paris; the streets accessible only by staircases, the unpleasant end of fleeting popularity, and the sexual opportunism of men with a product to sell, in an uncompromising picture of show business that is in stark contrast with the picture painted by Hollywood. There is an obvious comparison to be made with Lloyd Bacon's "42nd Street," which had been made about 20 years before, featuring Ruby Keeler as a dancing sensation, a fresh-faced kid from the sticks who had come to New York to get into show business, who saves the show when the star fails--"You're going out there a kid from the chorus, but you've got to come back a STAR!!" Warner Baxter's "Julian Marsh" is a director who suffers for his art and is unappreciated. Jean Gabin's "Danglard" keeps running afoul of genital politics, but when he talks about the show he is more like Knute Rockne than like Julian Marsh. He's all about the game, except--for his pointy thing. He has a profitable new venture sewed up until his mistress become jealous of the woman whom she recognizes as his next mistress. His prospects rise and fall with every coital journey he takes.
Danglard takes Mistress 1 (Lola de Castro, played by Maria Felix) slumming to a dive, where he sees "Nini," (Françoise Arnoul) with her boyfriend and first lover, Paulo the baker, and discovers that she is a spirited dancer. He uses his charm and the prospect of money to lure Nini to studying dancing so that she may go on the stage. The prospect of money and fame charms Nini, and she become Danglard's next mistress, as well as an apt student of the cancan, which Danglard has dubbed "French Cancan," to cater to the current Anglophile tendency in the dance.
Both "42nd St" and "French Cancan" are tributes to show business--to modern entertainment--that has is own iconography and its own conceit. "42nd St." is centered around Julian Marsh, a great director of Broadway shows, which he organizes with great personal energy and dubious sexual involvement. The male juvenile is a middle-aged twit with lumbago, replaced by Dick Powell, the pretty tenor with secret wealth to hide. Danglard, on the other hand, goes from woman to woman, seducing them with the promise of fame, hooking them with what must have been a very persuasive endowment. One has no doubt that he is heterosexual and quite active. Postcoital scenes abound.
Days after seducing Nini away from Paulo, he has discovered Esther, a Piaf type, and begun to prepare her for her job of singing the film's theme song while he plays it on her fiddle. That of course arouses Nini's jealousy just as she has aroused the jealousy of Lola. (And of course Nini had already forsworn the privilege of being a Czarina!) The whole movie is about how Danglard's concupiscence has cost him money but how even his troublesome horniness is subordinate to his love for the show--how the audience demands devotion--and it is this potent combination of phallic persuasion and tempting fame that makes Danglard the hero, while asserting that a true lover of the show will never profit as much as the money men. At the movie's conclusion, Danglard, having outfoxed the creditors and the jealous babes, approaches a new attraction watching the incredible (and believe me, it IS incredible) performance of the cancan. "Have you ever thought about being on the stage?" he asks, and the curtain descends. Meanwhile, poor Julian is sitting of the fire escape of the theatre listening to Peggy Sawyer's new fans disparage his contribution to the show's success. (I won't even go into "42nd Street"'s central line, "Oh, Guy, it was GRAND of you to COME!")
Furthermore, I won't go into the glimpse one gets of legendary Parisian entertainers, including a brief vision of Piaf, nor of the vision of a Paris both urban and rural. Certainly there is a sample of the styles that engendered Trenet and Aznavour. But it is the memoir of an assertive and welcome masculinity, something unseen in any Hollywood musical with which it might be compared, is a pleasant relief from the androgynes of 30's Hollywood musicals (including my beloved Fred Astaire, not to mention Dick Powell), let alone the barf promulgated by MGM in movies like the repulsive "American in Paris." All those fountains! We'll save our comparison of that turkey to "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and its deconstruction of the American male for another day.
That Danglard may have been a hopeful vision, in postwar France, of a kind of hyper-masculine mec that may or may not have ever existed, is practically beside the point. That he is a man's man, neither John Wayne nor Edward Everett Horton, is perhaps more on target. That he is a man who likes the ladies is never in question. I, for one, wouldn't mind living his life at all. I wonder if Gabin was that lucky.
At the beginning of this comment I wanted to talk about Baz Luhrman and what Sinclair Lewis called "boloney". I never got that far. Baz's Moulin Rouge... well, Paris doesn't put that kind of stuff in the Seine anymore.
Danglard takes Mistress 1 (Lola de Castro, played by Maria Felix) slumming to a dive, where he sees "Nini," (Françoise Arnoul) with her boyfriend and first lover, Paulo the baker, and discovers that she is a spirited dancer. He uses his charm and the prospect of money to lure Nini to studying dancing so that she may go on the stage. The prospect of money and fame charms Nini, and she become Danglard's next mistress, as well as an apt student of the cancan, which Danglard has dubbed "French Cancan," to cater to the current Anglophile tendency in the dance.
Both "42nd St" and "French Cancan" are tributes to show business--to modern entertainment--that has is own iconography and its own conceit. "42nd St." is centered around Julian Marsh, a great director of Broadway shows, which he organizes with great personal energy and dubious sexual involvement. The male juvenile is a middle-aged twit with lumbago, replaced by Dick Powell, the pretty tenor with secret wealth to hide. Danglard, on the other hand, goes from woman to woman, seducing them with the promise of fame, hooking them with what must have been a very persuasive endowment. One has no doubt that he is heterosexual and quite active. Postcoital scenes abound.
Days after seducing Nini away from Paulo, he has discovered Esther, a Piaf type, and begun to prepare her for her job of singing the film's theme song while he plays it on her fiddle. That of course arouses Nini's jealousy just as she has aroused the jealousy of Lola. (And of course Nini had already forsworn the privilege of being a Czarina!) The whole movie is about how Danglard's concupiscence has cost him money but how even his troublesome horniness is subordinate to his love for the show--how the audience demands devotion--and it is this potent combination of phallic persuasion and tempting fame that makes Danglard the hero, while asserting that a true lover of the show will never profit as much as the money men. At the movie's conclusion, Danglard, having outfoxed the creditors and the jealous babes, approaches a new attraction watching the incredible (and believe me, it IS incredible) performance of the cancan. "Have you ever thought about being on the stage?" he asks, and the curtain descends. Meanwhile, poor Julian is sitting of the fire escape of the theatre listening to Peggy Sawyer's new fans disparage his contribution to the show's success. (I won't even go into "42nd Street"'s central line, "Oh, Guy, it was GRAND of you to COME!")
Furthermore, I won't go into the glimpse one gets of legendary Parisian entertainers, including a brief vision of Piaf, nor of the vision of a Paris both urban and rural. Certainly there is a sample of the styles that engendered Trenet and Aznavour. But it is the memoir of an assertive and welcome masculinity, something unseen in any Hollywood musical with which it might be compared, is a pleasant relief from the androgynes of 30's Hollywood musicals (including my beloved Fred Astaire, not to mention Dick Powell), let alone the barf promulgated by MGM in movies like the repulsive "American in Paris." All those fountains! We'll save our comparison of that turkey to "Breakfast at Tiffany's" and its deconstruction of the American male for another day.
That Danglard may have been a hopeful vision, in postwar France, of a kind of hyper-masculine mec that may or may not have ever existed, is practically beside the point. That he is a man's man, neither John Wayne nor Edward Everett Horton, is perhaps more on target. That he is a man who likes the ladies is never in question. I, for one, wouldn't mind living his life at all. I wonder if Gabin was that lucky.
At the beginning of this comment I wanted to talk about Baz Luhrman and what Sinclair Lewis called "boloney". I never got that far. Baz's Moulin Rouge... well, Paris doesn't put that kind of stuff in the Seine anymore.
Easy and enjoyable
chriswgallagher15 July 2002
Renoir's tale of Paris,the Cancan,a washer-girl and the Moulin Rouge.A more subdued,but highly entertaining version of the opening of the Moulin Rouge. Jean Gabin gives his usual excellent performance.The Technicolor photography on the print I saw was exquisite.An easy evening's viewing. chris w galla
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