La Chienne

French director Jean Renoir's second sound film is also his first masterpiece. Adapted from a 1930 novel by Georges de La Fouchardière, La Chienne (1931) tells the story of a romantic triangle that is as much human comedy as tragedy. Maurice (Michel Simon), a henpecked cashier and weekend painter, falls for a bruised prostitute named Lulu (Janie Marèse). Passing himself off as a professional artist, Maurice supports Lulu in exchange for her favors. Meanwhile, Lulu is hopelessly in love with her abusive pimp Dédé (Georges Flamant), who forces her to keep up the arrangement with Maurice as long as the latter keeps paying out. When Dédé's gambling debts get out of hand, Lulu and Dédé pass off Maurice's paintings as Lulu's, creating a minor sensation in the art world of Paris. Of course, the situation is doomed from the beginning—Maurice has been embezzling to sustain his lifestyle and Lulu stays with him only because Dédé demands it—and the truth comes out with fatal consequences. Renoir frames the film with a Punch and Judy-like puppet show (which proclaims that the film has "no moral message"), and his humanistic approach has an ironic edge that is fitting for a story with such willfully oblivious characters. Handsomely remastered from a new 4K digital restoration, extras include a 1961 intro by Renoir, a new restoration of Renoir's debut sound film On purge bébé (1931) a 1967 French documentary on Renoir, and an interview with Renoir scholar Christopher Faulkner. Highly recommended. (S. Axmaker)