Nana - A 1927 Silent Film Directed by Jean Renoir- 2 Hours 27 Minutes. Available on YouTube with English Captions- A Paris in July 2024 Movie

 

Paris in July 2024

Paris in July does not just include books. Contributions on your Paris vacation, your favourite meal or restaurant, French movies, music, art, Parisian history and more are very welcome. On the home page for the event you will inevitably discover perhaps new to you authors, movies as well as recipes to send you if you are lucky to Paris or at least the kitchen.

Nana - A 1927 Silent Film Directed by Jean Renoir- 2 Hours 27 Minutes. Available on YouTube with English Captions- A Paris in July 2024 Movie

Jean Renoir.

Born: September 15, 1894, Montmartre, Paris, France

Died: February 12, 1979 (age 84 years), Beverly Hills, California, United States 

Renoir's most famous films were made during the 1930s, including La Grande Illusion (1937), The Rules of the Game (1939), and The Woman on the Beach (1943). These films are all considered masterpieces of world cinema.

Renoir left France for the United States in 1941, and he made several films there, including The Southerner (1945) and The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946). He returned to France in 1949, and he continued to make films until his death in 1979.

Nana, Renoir's second film Nana is on based a novel by the French naturalist author Émile Zola. Completed in 1880, Nana is the ninth installment in the 20-volume Les Rougon-Macquart series.

I very much enjoyed watching Nana. It is a strikingly good depiction of the transition of Nana from a girl from a very poor family, to a dancer in a burlesque show, to a prostitute and eventually a very wealthy courtesan, mistress to wealthy nobles. Renoir shows us the impact of Nana on the men in her life, they competed for her favour with extremely expensive gifts including a mansion. The sets are really well done. 

Nana is a bit sadistic but also a victim. Her servants added a lot to the movie.  There are undercurrents of Lesbian relationships.

Mel Ulm 

The Reading Life 

La Grande Illusion - A 1937 Film (The Geand Illusion) - directed by Jean Renoir - run time an hour and 54 minutes

 

The Grand Illusion is considered one of the greatest movies ever made.

"It's not a movie about a prison escape, nor is it jingoistic in its politics; it's a meditation on the collapse of the old order of European civilization. Perhaps that was always a sentimental upper-class illusion, the notion that gentlemen on both sides of the lines subscribed to the same code of behavior. Whatever it was, it died in the trenches of World War I." from Roger Ebert.

You may watch it on Internetarchives.org 

https://archive.org/details/1937lagrandeillusion

The movie is set in a German prison during World War One. The prisoners are a diverse mix of prisoners.  It was released just as another war was on the way.

With Grand Illusion, Renoir provides a multilayered perspective on class, war, nationalism, and prejudice. For example, the film’s treatment of Rosenthal—an affluent Jewish banker who generously shares his food with his fellow inmates— has been interpreted as an effort by Renoir to combat anti-Semitism during the rise of Nazi Germany. De Boeldieu’s sacrifice for his working-class comrades, furthermore, symbolically mirrors the changing social order of Europe. In addition, Rosenthal points out the ultimate “grand illusion”: that the current war will end all wars. The performances by Jean Gabin and Erich von Stroheim are exceptional, although the latter, having spent years away from his native Austria, reportedly struggled to speak German. Grand Illusion was the first non-English-language film to be nominated for an Academy Award as best picture. However, the work was so despised by the Nazis that they confiscated and destroyed prints of the film during their World War II occupation of France.

I highly reccomend the presentation below from the M I T film school.

"Renoir was born in Paris in 1894, the son of the famous Impressionist painter Pierre-Auguste Renoir. He began his career as an actor in the early 1920s, and his first film as a director was La Fille de l'eau (1924). Renoir's early films were mostly silent, and they often featured his wife, Catherine Hessling, in the lead role.

Renoir's first sound film was La Chienne (1931), a dark comedy about a man who is driven to crime by his mistress. The film was a critical and commercial success, and it established Renoir as one of the leading directors of the French cinema. 

Renoir's most famous films were made during the 1930s, including La Grande Illusion (1937), The Rules of the Game (1939), and The Woman on the Beach (1943). These films are all considered masterpieces of world cinema, and they explore themes of war, class, and love.

Renoir left France for the United States in 1941, and he made several films there, including The Southerner (1945) and The Diary of a Chambermaid (1946). He returned to France in 1949, and he continued to make films until his death in 1979." - Bard

Mel Ulm