Film Screening: La Bête Humaine December 16, 2008

(Jean Renoir, France 1938, 96 min., 16mm)

A disturbed train engineer (Jean Gabin) falls hard for the conductor’s wife (Simone Simon), who embroils her lover in a plot to murder her husband. Renoir’s updated adaptation of Zola’s novel is a masterpiece of poetic realism and provided a prototype for countless American films noir, including Fritz Lang’s remake, Human Desire.

Official Website: http://dryden.eastmanhouse.org/films/la-bete-humaine/