French Cancan
From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia
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French Cancan is a 1954 French musical film written and directed by Jean Renoir and starring Jean Gabin and María Félix.
Plot
Set in 1890s Paris, Henri Danglard is the owner of a cafe, which features his mistress, Lola, as a belly dancer. Losing money, Henri finds himself in Montmartre and finds that the old-fashioned can-can is still being performed there. Inspired, Henri comes up with a new business scheme that aims to revive the can-can, featuring a new dancer, Nini, a laundress he meets by chance.
Cast
- Jean Gabin as Henri Danglard
- Françoise Arnoul as Nini
- María Félix as Lola
- Philippe Clay as Casimir le Serpentin
- Édith Piaf as Eugénie Buffet
Critical reception
François Truffaut reviewed the film in Arts magazine in May 1955 and called the film a milestone in the history of colour of cinema. "Every scene is a cartoon in movement [-] Madame Guibole's dance class reminds us of a Degas sketch." Whilst Truffaut did not consider it as important a film as Rules of the Game or The Golden Coach he nevertheless praised it as an example of Renoir "as vigorous and youthful as ever." This affirmative response was not shared by Bernard Chardère however, writing in Positif , who criticised the music, the sets, even the final cancan scene. "The phoniness of the rue Lepic, with its vegetable carts and piles of artificial stones is painful to look at. The actors act. The audience gets bored. The dance rehearsals are Degas all right, but the kind that appears on Post Office calendars."