Summary
A station master, Roubaud, discovers that his young wife, Séverine, has been seduced
by her godfather, the wealthy Grandmorin. Jealous, Roubaud forces Séverine
to assist in the murder of Grandmorin during a train journey. The murder is witnessed
by a railway worker, Jacques Lantier, but he keeps quiet because he is in love with Séverine.
Disgusted by what her husband has done, Séverine has an affair with Lantier and
pleads with him to kill her cruel husband. Little does she know that Lantier also
has a dark secret. The railway worker is subject to fits which have the capacity
to tranform him into a pathological killer...
Review
La Bête humaine is a powerful study of the darker side of human nature.
It comes from possibly the greatest period of French cinema, from a great director, Jean
Renoir, at the height of his powers (between the legendary films La Grande illusion
and La Règle du jeu). It fits into yet somehow seems to transcend
the style of poetic realism that was in vogue at the time. Whilst the notion of
a tragic love story was pretty common place in French cinema in the 1930s, Renoir instils
a darker, much more chilling sense of drama in his film. The result is deeply moving
yet also frightening.
The film boasts some
incredible acting performances. Fernand Ledoux is every inch the jealous husband
driven to commit a crime that ultimately destroys his reason for living: a sombre and
pathetic performance. Simone Simon is the apparently helpless victim, the bullied wife,
forced into a crime she wants no part in. Yet her character is the worst of all.
Séverine reviles against the murder of her godfather but tries to coax her lover
into getting rid of her husband. Simon is captivating as the amoral Séverine
and her scenes with Jean Gabin have a genuine tenderness which render the conclusion of
the film even more tragic.
But it is Jean Gabin
who deserves the highest accolade for his role as the cursed train driver, Lantier.
We are accustomed to his charms as a womaniser but in this film Gabin takes on a much
more challenging and disturbing character, that of a dangerous schizophrenic. The
scenes where he succumbs to a fit that turns him into a murderous animal are charged with
emotional intensity and sheer blackness. It is a Jekyll and Hyde transformation
that needs no special effects or clever make-up, just a brilliant actor, carefully photographed.
The metaphor of the steam
train fits perfectly into the film. The train’s relentless, surging momentum pre-empts
and constantly reiterates the dark inhuman force that lies dormant in Lantier which, when
released, is uncontrollable, unstoppable. The metaphor and the reality collide spectacularly
in the film’s tragic and pessimistic conclusion.
The film’s moral position
is ambiguous, although this is probably a reflection of the ambiguity in Zola’s novel
on which this film is based. The many motivations which can drive one human being
to kill another are compared without prejudice or bias. Lantier is afflicted with
an uncontrollable animalistic desire to kill yet he manages to resist murdering his rival,
despite the desperate plea from his lover. By contrast, Séverine is appalled
by the brutal stabbing of her godfather but has no qualms about killing her husband. Roubaud’s
motive for killing is the most explicable, in human terms, prompted by a simple desire
for revenge. The contrast between the three characters is intriguing but Renoir,
wisely perhaps, places them on an even moral basis, leaving the viewer to draw his or
her own conclusions.
© James Travers 2002
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