Watches
March 21, 2022
Early Renoir. Like most of these early 30s films, the ability to record sound shifted the focus from visual storytelling to dialogue-heavy stories. And so we get a film where characters are endlessly blabbering and chattering away, with a camera that mostly just registers people talking.
Maurice is a simple guy who married the wrong woman. He isn't happy in his marriage and when Lulu, a young and seductive woman, comes along, he falls for her charms immediately. Lulu isn't too interested in Maurice, but to please her pimp Dédé, she hooks up with him anyway.
The performances aren't great, the cinematography is pretty dull and the plot is basic and predictable. Looking at the history of cinema it's obvious why and how this was made, but watching the film now it's hard to derive any fun from it. I'm not a big Renoir fan to begin with, this one certainly didn't help.