La Chienne (The Bitch) (1931)

dir. Jean Renoir
writ. Georges de La Fouchardière (novel), André Mouézy-Éon (play), André Girard, Jean Renoir
feat. Michel Simon, Janie Marèse, Georges Flamant, Magdeleine Bérubet , Roger Gaillard, Marcel Courmes

In what feels like a warm-up to future works such as Boudu Saved From Drowning and The Rules of the Game, Renoir opens La Chienne with puppets, a show within a show, teasing the audience with the suggestion that the film is a tragedy or perhaps a comic farce about manners, then denying both, insisting it is nothing but a story. Legrand, an aspiring painter and put upon poor schlub, is a joke at the office and a whipping boy to his shrew of a wife (Bérubet). When he stumbles upon Lulu (Marèse) being beaten by her dandy, would-be pimp, Dédé (Flamant), he takes action and incidentally becomes Lulu's next mark.

I suppose Lulu has a title to live up to in the film, though it always takes a leap of credibility for me to see why a man falls for a cruel, gold-digging woman who seems to shower meager affection in proportion to her needy whimpering. But perhaps sex and a touch of youth are good enough for Legrand and at least moderately better than his wife, always comparing him unfavorably to her deceased former husband, a war hero. As Lulu further deceives Legrand, selling his paintings as her own and continuing to run with Dédé, a fun twist arrives in the guise of the Colonel, the former husband long believed dead, who had apparently decided to stay dead to avoid returning to the hellish wife. The men share a delightfully backward argument, each insisting the other has a right to the wife and the life, neither wanting it. Legrand sees his escape and sets a trap that will free him in the process.

As the story nears its end, the roles of the characters are explored in greater depth. Lulu wishes for a real life with Dédé, something he seems to consider before reverting to his pimp-owner attitude, shattering her hopes. Similarly, Legrand, on the verge of collapse, having caught Lulu with Dédé and ready to dismiss her for good, suddenly changes direction, perhaps seeing her as his last chance for something better, ready to take her away from the temptations of the city to make a life for them somewhere new. Sadly, Lulu has her roles in mind as well and can't live that fantasy with Legrand, unfortunate for her since she winds up dead instead.

Dédé is the likely culprit in the public eye, even if innocent, and so it plays out. One can't help but wait for the last minute confession, the stay of execution, the saved day. But it never comes in this story, a satisfying lack of twist and an acceptance of the sometimes rotten luck of life. A last remark upon life's immeasurable opportunities follows in the final scene when we see Legrand, now a bum, watch one of his paintings get sold and packed into a fancy car at the same moment he is reunited with the Colonel, and a small found bill offers enough for them to celebrate a bright moment in the day.