It’s no secret that the Hollywood Comet loves musicals.
In 2010, I revealed I had seen 400 movie musicals over the course of eight years. Now that number is over 600. To celebrate and share this musical love, here is my weekly feature about musicals.

This week’s musical:
French Cancan (1955) – Musical #818

Studio:
Francoeur Studios

Director:
Jean Renoir

Starring:
Jean Gabin, Françoise Arnoul, María Félix, Anna Amendola, Jean-Roger Caussimon, Dora Doll, Giani Esposito, Franco Pastorino, Gaston Gabaroche, Jacques Jouanneau, Jean Parédès, Valentine Tessier, Pierre Olaf, Phillipe Clay
Specialty performers: Édith Piaf, Patachou

Plot:
Night club owner Henri Danglard (Gabin) is always looking for new talent, from dancers to a whistling Pierrot (Olaf). While “slumming” at the White Queen with his star Lola (Félix), Danglard discovers a young laundress, Nini (Arnoul), who is doing the old dance, the cancan. Lola is infuriated and jealous of Nini as Danglard decides to build an act and brand new nightclub, the Moulin Rouge, around the cancan dance. As Nini’s life changes, suitors come in and out of her life, leaving her confused about who and what she wants. She thinks she’s in love with Danglard, but his main love is art.

Trivia:
• Final film of Gaston Gabaroche
• Cora Vaucaire dubbed the singing voice of Anna Amendola
• The character of Henri Danglard is based on Charles Zidler, one of the people who opened the Moulin Rogue, according to Renoir’s biographer.

Highlights:
• The costumes and Technicolor
• The finale cancan dance

Notable Songs:
• “Madame Arthur” performed by Patachou
• “Sérénade du Pavé” performed by Edith Piaf

My review:
The heyday of the Impressionist movement in art feels like distant history and the artists, like Pierre-Auguste Renoir, feel like long gone figures. But the time gap almost feels closed when you consider that Renoir the painter is the father of French director Jean Renoir.

Though his father passed away in 1919, Jean Renoir’s films were like a moving painting, especially in films like the colorful musical FRENCH CANCAN (1955).

Night club owner Henri Danglard (Gabin) is always looking for new talent, from dancers to a whistling Pierrot (Olaf). While “slumming” at the White Queen with his star Lola (Félix), Danglard discovers a young laundress, Nini (Arnoul), who is doing the old dance, the cancan. Lola is infuriated and jealous of Nini as Danglard decides to build an act and brand new nightclub, the Moulin Rouge, around the cancan dance. As Nini’s life changes, suitors come in and out of her life, leaving her confused about who and what she wants. She thinks she’s in love but Danglard doesn’t want to be a bird in a gilded cage. For him, women come and go, but art and theater are forever.

The film is visually stunning, and it’s no doubt that Renoir was inspired by the paintings of his father, or his father’s contemporaries like Edgar Degas.

The film is a very loose biopic on Charles Zidler, who was one of the people who opened the Moulin Rouge in 1889. Unlike more dramatic films about the theatrical house known for its red windmill design, like MOULIN ROUGE (1953) and MOULIN ROGUE (2001), FRENCH CANCAN (1955) is a joyful picture, even amidst a few dramatic episodes.

For actor Jean Gabin, he was happy to play a more lighthearted role than what he was usually cast in, and Renoir was happy to work with him again. It was the fourth time Renoir and Gabin collaborated. The others being THE LOWER DEPTHS (1936), GRAND ILLUSION (1937) and LA BETE HUMAINE (1938).

“It was a return to the past, to my companion … and I am grateful to cinema for having given me this comradeship,” Renoir wrote in My Life and My Films. “I love Gabin and he loves me.”

Gabin is the main character, truly controlling many of the lives that rotate around him. Mexican born-actress María Félix is a delight in this, as she plays a jealous actress and is stunning do it.

Françoise Arnoul is the ingénue, Nini, whose ordinary life is changing due to show business. The other standouts to me include the astonishingly handsome Italian, Franco Pastorino, who plays Nini’s baker boyfriend. Pastorino died just a few years later at age 25. I also liked the role that Giani Esposito played as a lovelorn prince. Phillipe Clay was also lots of fun as a high kicking member of the theater.

It’s also interesting to see brief musical performances from French singers Édith Piaf and Patachou.

Even future director François Truffaut, who was a film critic at the time, compared the film to paintings in his May 1955 Arts Magazine review.

“Every scene is a cartoon in movement,” Truffaut wrote. “Madame Guibole’s dance class reminds us of a Degas sketch.”

Truffaut also noted the film “as vigorous and youthful as ever.”

Overall, Renoir’s film is a joy to watch, colorful and full of life.

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