Summary
A proud but talentless young actress, Nana, dreams of a better life for herself, away
from the tawdry slums of Paris. She gets her chance when a government official,
Count Muffat, falls under her spell having watched her performance at the theatre.
Through Muffat’s influence, Nana gets the starring role in her next play, but the play
is a commercial disaster. Humiliated, Nana accepts Muffat’s offer of a new life
as his mistress, living in the sumptuous apartment he provides for her. One
day, Nana receives a visit from her hairdresser’s uncle, the Count de Vandeuvres, who
proves to be an easy victim for her charms. Vandeuvres risks everything to
win Nana for himself - but fails. Even Nana’s hairdresser, Hugon, is not immune
to Nana’s charms. Jealous of Muffat, he kills himself, and the shock of his death
drives Nana back to the life of drunken debauchery she thought she had escaped from...
Review
Jean Renoir’s second full-length film is this lavish and fairly faithful adaptation of
Emile Zola’s classic novel, Nana. The film’s extravagances include spacious,
overly decorated sets and two magnificent set pieces - a horse race and an open air ball
(complete with a stunningly choreographed cancan sequence). So much money was spent
on the film that it could never have made a profit, and it was the commercial failure
of this film which robbed Renoir of the opportunity to make such an ambitious film again
for several years.
Whilst Nana is noticeably less experimental than Renoir’s previous film, La
fille de l’eau (1924), it is a more sophisticated and mature work, and certainly
more characteristic of Renoir’s subsequent films. The freedom of expression,
the overriding importance of characterisation (even for minor characters), the brittle
relationship between men and women - the style of the film is unmistakably that of the
great director Jean Renoir. There are even some fine examples of Renoir’s
wicked sense of humour - including some witty visual jokes and a bedroom farce scene -
to complement the film’s darker dramatic moments (of which there are plenty).
The film stars Renoir’s wife, Catherine Hessling, in one of her most eccentric performances
as the flawed heroine Nana. Hessling is brilliant at capturing the negative qualities
of the character - her vulgarity, her arrogance and vanity - but she also manages to arouse
sympathy in the spectator and comes across as a victim of her own social background and
uncontrollable impulses. Hessling’s performance is characteristically stylised,
noticeably lacking in subtlety, but - for once - perfectly suited to the character she
is playing.
Hessling works well with her co-stars, Werner Krauss and Jean Angelo, who play Nana’s
love-struck admirers. Whilst Hessling’s portrayal of Nana appears to lack humanity,
there is no end of that quality in her co-stars’ performances. The film is primarily
about the power of love to take hold and drag its victims inexorably towards their doom,
but it is also about the inability of a working class girl to elevate herself above her
baser qualities.
Renoir’s scriptwriter, Pierre Lestringuez, and art director, Claude-Autant Lara, also
appear in the film (as theatrical director and amorous playwright respectively).
The film was magnificently restored in 2002 by Cinéteca Comunale, with the support
of the Franco-German television channel Arte.
© James Travers 2002
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