#La bete humaine

[rhera]

PART I - PART II - PART III

— Love in The Afternoon (1957) The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers (2002) La Bête Humaine (1938) The Conformist (1970) The Pirate (1948) Marriage Italian Style (1964) The Devil Is a Woman (1935) Clue (1985) The Hunger (1983) Swing Time (1936)

[the-best-of-letterboxd]

La Bete Humaine (1938)

[doppleganger-rental]

'La Bete Humaine' by Jean Renoir (1938)

[watching-pictures-move]

Movie Review | Human Desire (Lang, 1954)

La Bete Humaine opens with a very vivid sequence of a train running at full steam ahead, coal being shoveled into the engine, like you’re wolfing down spicy food that somehow gets spicier every bite. That’s how I felt when I was downing a mutton roti last night. It was like my esophagus was on fire. 

The opening of Human Desire, which is based on the same Emile Zola novel (which I have not read, so I cannot attest to either movie’s faithfulness to the source), is similar but perhaps less vivid. But otherwise I found Fritz Lang’s direction more engaging than Jean Renoir’s, likely because it was more in the tradition of film noir proper and as such has the expectedly heavy doses of light and shadow and all those wonderful things. 

But I also found myself more engaged by the central relationship in the Lang movie. I should concede that I put it on after a long day and even longer week at work and as such was prone to zoning out, but no matter how much Simone Simon glowed under the lighting or how feline the twinkle in her eye was, I could not myself to care about her relationship with Jean Gabin. Also, there’s a lot of dodgy rear projection in the movie, which I probably would have excused if I had been more drawn in otherwise.

Gloria Grahame and Glenn Ford play those roles respectively, and like in The Big Heat, I think Lang finds interesting ways to use their presences. Grahame’s girlishness once again hides her wounds and capacity for darkness. Ford’s upstanding demeanour is subverted less forcefully than in The Big Heat, and he lacks Gabin’s violent tendencies with are instead transplanted to Grahame’s husband Broderick Crawford. (One of the Italian posters features Crawford lumbering in the background, like a Tor Johnson monster movie.) All of this probably makes this a less transgressive take on the story than the Renoir, although Lang throw a wrench into things by comparing Ford’s experience killing in war with his reluctance to do it up close. For the record, I agree with Ford that murder is WRONG. 

Anyway, it wouldn’t be a film noir review without me getting thirsty, and I gotta say that Kathleen Case in that one scene wearing a floral robe and with a flower in her hair was really doing it for me.

[sunlitroom]

I was tagged by the cultured and dapper @rhavewellyarnbag. Thank-you! :)

Last song:  Marlene on the Wall by Suzanne Vega. I'm enjoying nostalgically revisiting all the favourites of my early teens - so there's been a lot of Suzanne Vega, Alanis Morissette, and Lisa Loeb

Current book stack: It's honestly shamefully long. There's an unread Maigret, some Greek plays, La Bete Humaine... the list goes on. It bothers me how hard it is to read right now - but I'm knackered after work.

Last film: I watched two very excellent films over Christmas which both deserve a mention: The Long Good Friday and Double Indemnity. I'll get back to watching more films after I recover from the slap in the face that is back to the working routine.

The Long Good Friday is a late 70s/early 80s film full of British and Irish actors that you'll likely recognise from other things. It's hard and unsparing and as far from mawkish Richard Curtis-esque British films as you can get.

Despite enjoying noir, I'd somehow not seen Double Indemnity, which is recognised as the example of the genre. I enjoyed it and will watch it again just to see Barton Keyes, who is wonderful.

I've actually just put one of the old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films on because it's a stormy night and perfect for it.

Last show:  I'm dragging Succession out for as long as it will go. I need to go back to Justified.

Current obsession:  I'm currently flitting between them. I'm not sure anything has grabbed me as hard as Gotham did in a while.

I tag, should they wish to play, @countess--olenska, @lalaurelia, @shadow-waterglow, @miraclemaggie, @kenobiwaned, @bunchofasholes, and anyone else who wants to play

[sir-squalrus]

Jean Gabin- holy fuck this guy fucking rules

I am not an "old movie" person by any means. I have never tried to write a review or summary of a movie, period. I just feel very moved by these movies. Gabin's face. Dude. DUUUUDE. I feel like I was fucking robbed. 34 years I've gone without ever seeing these, and even the worst of them (moontide) was worth my time.

Thank you to my best friend, who has slowly over the last few years been showing me dozens of older films. Including all of these in just 3 or4 IRL sessions. @itslucyhenley TYVM for being the best human I know.

Gabin has a face I could watch forever. He is so fucking cool. Like, I used to think Bogart was the coolest, baddest old movie dude around.

Gabin gives him a serious run. I am stunned.

Grand Illusion 1937- This one really blew me away. The strong anti war commentary. The subtle gay love story. the humor and horror. Stunning.

Pepe Le Moko 1937- fucking tragic. but funny. Loved it. Also apparently responsible for pepe le pew existing. 

La Bete Humaine 1938- This felt so modern. Like the prototype of noir, but also a formula for future serial killer stories. It was fucked up, but the camera work and bleak transitions form daylight to all dark and brooding shadows really worked so well. The train itself felt like a fully developed character.

Port of Shadows 1938- Are these French people okay? Also I feel like bands like The Smiths and My Chemical Romance would not have existed without this movie lol. LOVED IT.

Le Jour Se Leve (Daybreak) 1939- Jesus. These French folks are not okay at all. Bleak. Gorgeous. Fucked up.

Moontide 1942- MEH. Weird movie, but Gabin was so cool in it. The only movie of his I have seen that feels like a a straight up romance/drama with a lot of comedy mixed in.

Touchez pas au grisbi 1954- cool as fuck heist-adjacent movie. God I loved this. Gabin at his absolute coolest for me.

French Cancan 1955- loved this night club comedy/drama. The color was so gorgeous and the art within the movie on the walls etc. felt like an extension of the characters themselves. I laughed, I cried, I got up and legit danced. Absolute BLAST of a flick.

[lastchancevillagegreen]

The Assommoir (1877) Émile Zola (472 pages)

The title is the name of the bar that becomes our heroine’s downfall.  This is easily Zola’s best book thus far (and I’ve yet to read what are heralded as his best, La Bete Humaine, Germinal and The Debacle) and easily his most depressing.  Horrible things happen in this novel: men kick their wives to death and flog their children with bull whips, 14 year olds become prostitutes, and alcohol destroys everyone.  The language is shocking (liberal use of the F-word and other words you don’t anticipate showing up in late 19th century literature) and Zola opens the novel with an introduction saying, “my crime is to have had the literary curiosity to gather the language of the common people and present it in a carefully fashioned mould.  Yet there are dictionaries of this language, scholars study it and savour its richness and its powerful striking imagery.”�� He claims not to worry about the rumors going on about his own debasement stating, “the novel will be my own defence. It is the work of truth, the first novel about the common people that does not lie.”  Zola certainly knew that most of his readers would never watch their life slide out of view and dance and drink and screw because there's nothing else to do.

[havaforever]

LA BETE - Rattrapage des films non vus en 2024! Et bien, plutôt dommage pour la perte de temps...

« Bienvenue chez les psys »....ou plutôt dans « la bête » le nouveau film de Bertrand Bonello qui depuis quelques temps s’aventure sur les chemins de la technologie et de ses impacts sur le genre humain.

Avec « la bête » on assiste à des voyages temporels commandé par une intelligence artificielle dans un monde dystopique né après des conflits qui resteront mystérieux jusqu’à la fin du film. Léa Seydoux est la cobaye de l’affaire et de tous les plans. Bref vous l’avez compris nous assistons à une version cinématographique de la « thèse, antithèse et relève » entre l’humain imparfait et la machine parfaite…

Est-ce que 2h56min est un chouilla trop long pour développer l’affaire….malheureusement oui. Et pourtant comme souvent avec Bertrand Bonello l’image est très belle, trop peut être car on a un peu l’impression de feuilleter un magazine de mode, mais le postulat du film sur l’insensibilité du monde le commande peut être ?

Quant au choix de Léa Seydoux pour incarner une héroïne en proie à ses phobies et la passion, on ne peut pas dire qu’il change grand-chose à l’affaire sa palette émotionnelle étant un peu limité (regard en dessous, moue boudeuse, absence d’une quelconque joie).... Très bien choisie pour incarner l'insensibilité de l'époque, malgré le rôle qui tente de lui faire dire l'inverse.

NOTE 9/20 - L'idée n'est pas mauvaise, les images sont belles, mais le chemin est tortueux pour un résultat bien creux.

[incensemaniac]

double sampling today with byredo la tulipe and liquides imaginaires bete humaine.. both are actually really nice. byredo has a similar orange juicy kind of dna in most of their perfumes which throws me off .. liquides imaginaires is a pretty odd house to me but i like some of their stuff

[christafaust]

Day 3 of #NoirCityHollywood Evening Edition: Another Railroad Noir double bill! https://christafaust.com/noir-city-hollywood-the-home-game-la-bete-humaine-and-human-desire/

[prof-marvolius]

Críptido del día: Abonesi

Descripción: Bernard Heuvelmans describió una pequeña criatura homínida llamada Abonesi en su libro "Les betes humaines d'Afrique". Reportados en las regiones del norte de Togo, los describió como habitantes del bosque con cabello largo y oscuro. Especuló que podría tratarse de una población relicta de Australopithecus.

[lemagcinema]

La Bête de Bertrand Bonello

Un film de Bertrand Bonello Avec: Léa Seydoux, George MacKay, Guslagie MalandaDans un futur proche où règne l’intelligence artificielle, les émotions humaines sont devenues une menace. Pour s’en débarrasser, Gabrielle doit purifier son ADN en replongeant dans ses vies antérieures. Elle y retrouve Louis, son grand amour. Mais une peur l’envahit, le pressentiment qu’une catastrophe se prépare.

Retrouvez l'article complet ici https://lemagcinema.fr/microcritique/la-bete-de-bertrand-bonello/

[fabiansociety]

the film festival, alas, turned out to be too much for me, but that’s fine. i wouldn’t recommend La Bete Humaine as a jean gabin intro—there’s a lot of abuse and domestic violence in it, which is fine and all but undersells gabin’s appeal

if you’re interested, i CAN highly recommend pepe le moko, a incredibly shot colonial proto-noir from 1937

and any number can win, from the other end of his career, where he’s playing opposite alain delon in a very cool 60s heist movie

at this film festival, and the organizer is talking about jean gabin. “he had tremendous sex appeal for women. and men, uh, wanted what he had” and it was so close to an admission that male movie viewers get a similar erotic scopophilic charge from hot charismatic dudes

this is gabin, by the way:

[sunlitroom]

I was tagged to do this by the very dear @rhavewellyarnbag.  Thank-you :)

Last song:  A slowed down version of Laughing on the Outside by Bernadette Carroll.  Some of these old 50s songs work surprisingly well slowed down like this - it gives them a nice melancholy vibe.

Current book stack: 

Winters in the World: A Journey through the Anglo-Saxon Year.  A genuinely lovely book full of Old English poetry and words that describe the Anglo-Saxon conception of the seasons.  The words are gorgeous. Feorhhus - for example - a word for body that translates as ‘spirit-house’.

Other books further back on the shelf include La Bete Humaine, The Greek Plays, and A Pick-Pocket’s Tale: The Underworld of 19th Century New York

Last film:  

Persuasion - the very good version with Ciaran Hinds.  Ciaran Hinds is a man seemingly perfectly made to wear a variety of period uniforms.  Overall - it’s a really satisfying, endearing watch.  I’ve also got into the habit of watching those old Basil Rathbone Sherlock Holmes films late at night - I find them really soothing.

Last show:  

I’m currently avoiding the last season of Succession because I don’t want it to be over.  Same with Call my Agent. I’m intermittently rewatching ER - which is warm 90s nostalgia for me.  I’m also contemplating Due South - but that might push the nostalgia into wistful weeping for the past.

Current obsession:  

I’m in one of those comfortable stages where I’m flitting between established obsessions instead of being in the grip of a new one.  I’m enjoying revisiting Robert Romano, difficult little fucker that he is. I also started a Norrington fic (and by started, I mean I read 30 chapters in one fell swoop).

I tag, should they choose to play: @lalaurelia, @countess--olenska, @honestmrdual, @themasterplanner, @zara2148, @kenobiwaned, @ncfan-1

[bitter69uk]

Born on this day 112 years ago: ineffably kitten-ish French actress Simone Simon (née Simone Thérèse Fernande Simon, 23 April 1910 – 22 February 2005). She’s a haunting, luminous presence in French films like La Bete Humaine (1938) opposite Jean Gabin – but English-speakers know Simon best for her appearances in two classic eerie Hollywood horror films: Cat People (1942) and The Curse of The Cat People (1944). Pictured: a 1938 portrait of Simon for the film Josette.