Product Details

• Directors: Jean Renoir
• Format: Box set, Color, Full Screen, NTSC, Subtitled
• Language: English
• Subtitles: French
• Region: Region 1 (U.S. and Canada only. Read more about DVD formats.)
  
• Aspect Ratio: 1.33:1
• Number of discs: 3
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Studio: Lions Gate
• DVD Release Date: April 24, 2007
• Run Time: 580 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000N2HBIO
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #22,016 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)
• Learn more about "Jean Renoir 3-Disc Collector's Edition (Whirlpool of Fate / Nana / Charleston Parade / La Marseillaise / The Doctor's Horrible Experiment / The Elusive Corporal)" on IMDb

Editorial Reviews

DISC 1 - Jean Renoir 2 Early Movies: LA FILLE DE L'EAU, NANA. DISC 2 - Jean Renoir Political period: LA MARSEILLAISE, + 2 short films: SUR UN AIR DE CHARLESTON, LA PETITE MARCHANDE D'ALLUMETTES. DISC 3 - 2 Later Movies: LE TESTAMENT DU DOCTEUR CORDELIER, LE CAPORAL EPINGLE

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

40 of 42 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars No masterpieces, but a great overview of Jean Renoir's career November 6, 2007

By Trevor Willsmer TOP 1000 REVIEWERVINE™ VOICE

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

LionsGate's Jean Renoir collection is quite a joy: there probably isn't a single genuinely great film on it, but the seven films taken together make for a great overview of his lesser-known work.

Renoir's first feature film, the 1925 silent La Fille de L'Eau aka Whirlpool, is a highly enjoyable tale of the riverbank, which is at once an almost Griffith-esque melodrama and visually experimental: there's a wonderfully surreal dream sequence, a memorable and striking shot of a boatman walking along the barge as it drifts by the camera and some furious crosscutting in an attempted rape sequence. There's a fine sense of the life and people along the river's edge to it, and it has a good sense of humor too. All too often the Cybill Shepherd to Renoir's Peter Bogdanovich, for once Renoir's wife and muse Catherine Hessling (like Shepherd a model, in this case for Renoir's father, rather than an actress) is in her element here, neither miscast nor asked to do anything beyond her abilities as the Mary Pickford-like heroine. There are some problems with the picture quality compared to the other titles in LionsGate's Renoir Collection DVD - the transfer was taken from one of the few surviving prints - but considering the film's rarity it's more than acceptable.

Renoir's second feature, 1926's adaptation of Emile Zola's Nana, reunites many of the key players from La Fille de l'Eau, but to less effect. In many ways Renoir's take on a Von Stroheim film, there are some moments of wit - such as the funeral procession of admirers to Nana's stage door after a disastrous first night - and a lightness of touch but it's constantly undermined by a horribly miscast lead.... The character is basically the town bike, and when the town in question is Paris that's quite an achievement, but it's hard to understand what it is about her that so captivates men that she drives her admirers to frustration or destruction. Introduced as `a pretty girl with no voice and no talent' (well, two-thirds right at least), Catherine Hessling proves that it takes more than just being a bad actress to play a bad actress. The irony that offstage Nana is the great actress she can never be onstage is lost because Hessling plays every scene in semaphore. It's the kind of performance that could have actually been improved by casting Pia Zadora: this is, after all, in many ways a vanity production to showcase Mrs Renoir's talents, and a typically financially disastrous one at that. The massive budget ate up Renoir's inheritance and the film's failure led Renoir to nearly give up filmmaking (though he apparently made good his losses by selling a few of his father's paintings).

Yet despite the void at the film's center, it's not a complete disaster. There are some nice visual flourishes and Werner Krauss (Dr Caligari himself) gives a grounded and surprisingly naturalistic performance as the ill-used Comte Muffat. He's not the only interesting name in the supporting cast either: Claude Autant-Lara, who would later become public enemy number one for the nouvelle vague directors and critics, also appears as Muffat's playwright friend and rival for his wife's affections while co-writer Pierre Lestringuez plays the scheming theatre manager Bordenave. There are some technical hiccups - a finger can be briefly seen adjusting the lens before an iris out while in the final scene the lights are obviously being turned out one-by-one rather than dimming naturally - and it never really justifies the obvious expense, but there's certainly enough that does work to make it worth a look, if only to see Renoir's great talent gradually emerging in fits and starts.

Made with film stock left over from the production of Nana, 1927's Sur un Air de Charleston is described as a holiday film for all concerned, and that's the best way to view it. Jean Renoir seems never to have thought enough of it to even edit the footage together. The plot is a simple reversion of racial stereotypes - in 2028 a black explorer travels to a post-holocaust Paris where a white native girl teaches him the Charleston (naturally he assumes she's a savage whose dancing is a prelude to her eating him before giving in to the seductive beat of `White Aborigine' music). There are plenty of surreal touches, be it the pet gorilla eating the flowers in Catherine Hessling's hair, the angels the girl telephones (Renoir and producer Pierre Braunberger among them) or the fact that black performer Johnny Huggins plays his part in minstrel blackface while Hessling's dancing ability is almost completely nonexistent, and there are some interesting occasional experiments with slow motion, but there's not really enough to sustain it for its modest two reels. An additional air of surrealism is provided by the fact that this silent musical has absolutely no score at all on Lions Gate's new DVD...

1928 short La Petite Marchande D'Allumettes aka The Little Match Girl also suffers from an unconvincing and badly cast lead performance from Mrs Renoir, Catherine Hessling, who looks anything but little and more than capable of looking after herself, which certainly takes the edge off Hans Christian Andersen's tale. Indeed, the film makes a couple of attempts to write itself out of the problem by portraying her as more than usually stupid, but they feel more like in-jokes than anything else. It's a shame, because the film itself is an impressively staged fantasy with great special effects and some interesting visual experimentation with camera speed and focus amid the unashamedly romantic treatment of the fantasy scenes, especially the sequence where the girl and her toy soldier are chased through the clouds by Death in the form of a relentless Hussar. If only you could care about the character. Lions Gate's transfer is rather more worn than their other Renoir titles, being mastered from a 1959 reissue with a good synchronized soundtrack.

La Marseillaise is a people's epic, and not just because it was initially backed by public subscription before budget overruns necessitated a more conventional form of funding. Even its credits proudly boast its association with France's short-lived Popular Front, while the picture is as much a celebration of the everyman's role in the great events of history as it is rabble-rousing propaganda for the impending war with Germany. Unfortunately it gets off to a surprisingly bad start. Indeed, the first twenty minutes are so poor you wonder if the film can ever recover. A stilted historical pageant in the very worst sense, with awkward editing, speech-making, initially clumsy characterization and a crude jumps forward in time, it's unpromising stuff.

It's only with the taking of the fort that Renoir really finds his feet as one character notes that sunsets are only glorious in novels - anyone who has to get up that early for work knows that they're usually cold, damp and grey. And with that comes Renoir's real manifesto for the film: he's less interested in the confused politics of France's messy revolution than he is in the people caught up in it, and from this point on it becomes a celebration of the ordinary people whose names have been forgotten in the great events. Aside from the King (a fine turn from Pierre Renoir, the director's brother) and his court, we never see any of the great names of the Revolution. Renoir's constantly roving camera is just as likely to settle on a pair of children playing in the street than the thousands of extras around them waiting for battle to be joined, while the political satire of a shadow play is far less important to him than a soldier taking his girl out for a night at the pictures. The cinematography is often stunning, picking up small details and filling the frame at the same time with a fluidity few Hollywood pictures of the time could match.

It's also very astute on the way an army - particularly a people's army of volunteers - marches on rumor and contradictions, yet never reduces the volunteers to figures of easy ridicule. Even the royalists are allowed some intelligence and a genuine love of France, even if they are fatally undermined by the ease with which they are sidetracked from politics to trivia: after pointing out the perils of the disastrous Brunswick Manifesto, the King ends up waving it through when he insults his wife's relatives an has to smooth things over. But then, everybody has their reasons.

It's not a great film, but it is a surprisingly entertaining one once it gets going and the camerawork is often stunning, with Renoir demonstrating such a mastery of the epic form that it's a pity he never returned to the genre.

Le Testament Du Docteur Cordelier is dismissed by many as a mere TV movie (it even begins with Renoir discussing the film in a television studio: around this time he regularly filmed introductions for TV broadcasts of his films), but despite being visually a little flat due to being shot quickly with multiple cameras both to save time and money and to allow the actors more freedom, it's an intriguing attempt to remove the overfamiliarity which curses all other adaptations of its source material. It would be giving too much away to mention exactly which extremely famous novel it's based on (it's not even credited in the main titles), but despite being moved from Victorian Edinburgh to 50s Paris it's in many ways the most faithful screen adaptation to the original mystery structure of the novel. Of course, once you know the title any mystery is gone, so in a strange way changing the names, updating and relocating it is the only way to even attempt to preserve any element of surprise.

Some elements are more successful than others, and while it retains the all-important but oft overlooked front door/back door geography of the good Doctor's house, it's somewhat diminished by both entrances opening on respectable streets rather than occupying the borderline between the upper class streets and the slums. However, it is the only version that points out that far from being the victim of his good intentions, the doctor in question is in fact merely covering up his own very willing part in the crimes rather than trying to put an end to them: his only reason for wanting to end them is to end the pain that HE suffers rather than the pain that is inflicted on others. But the real triumph of the film is Jean-Louis Barrault's performance as Opale, a quite remarkable display of pure physicality offering a mass of twitches, swagger and curious movements that should skirt on the comic yet somehow combine with the character's arbitrary rage and purely opportunistic violence to create a disturbing portrait of malice that's a world away from the hypocritical and ultimately far more monstrous Dr Cordelier's public displays of rigid self-control. It may be a minor film, particularly in Renoir's canon, but it's a major performance that deserves to be much better known.

Jean-Pierre Cassel is Le Caporal Épinglé aka The Vanishing Corporal/The Elusive Corporal, a serial escaper determined to get back to Paris when it becomes clear that the Germans have no intention of releasing their French prisoners of war after they have occupied France. A Franco-German co-production (which explains O.E. Hasse's third billing above the title for his four-minute cameo as a noisily drunken German), it has an eye for the absurdities of the situation - the escapes are half-planned, half-opportunistic - and it plays dryly to the lighter moments, such as the encounter with a more experienced escaper on a train, the sympathetic German barmaid who has seen so many escaped prisoners she can spot one at sight or a collaborating French sergeant and a Nazi officer exchanging notes on punishments for skivers. Yet the few genuinely dramatic moments are still powerful, not least Claude Rich's improvised escape attempt based on the principle that "the best plan is to have no plan." Although it's a solidly commercial picture that makes no attempt to be a great one, it still has room to muse on the nature of freedom and the way that war breaks down class barriers and makes slaves equal: indeed, more than one character fears freedom because it means a return to the old social order. There are even deliberate echoes of La Grande Illusion in a sequence near the very end of the film that almost plays like a what-if to Jean Gabin's romance with the widow.

Despite its commercial success (though critics were divided), Renoir would never be able to get funding for another feature, not directing again for eight years with his final work for television, La Petite Théâtre de Jean Renoir. As cinematic swansongs go, Caporal may fall short of his earlier masterpieces but considering the disasters that ended so many great directors' careers it's not such a bad film to go out on at all. Thankfully LionsGate's DVD boasts the uncut 105-minute version in a beautiful print, though there is some background dirt on the soundtrack in places.

Rounding out the package is a good documentary featuring Martin Scorsese and Renoir's son among others discussing each of the films in this collection. The French version of this set actually runs to twelve films: hopefully LionsGate may produce a second volume to fill in the gaps! Read more ›

25 of 26 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars GREAT, GREAT GREAT June 8, 2007

By Bartolome Mesa Gil

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

What a treat! Five rare Renoir features at an incredible bargain price. Including his amazing directorial debut, La Fille de l'Eau, a joyful and youthful experiment in silent filmmaking, and the superb sound epic La Marseillaise, not to mention his masterful updatings of Zola's Nana and Stevenson's Dr. Jeckill and Mr. Hyde (Le Trestament du Docteur Cordelier) and his late film Le Caporal Épinglé, a fascinating look back at his most famous work Grand Illusion. Two experimental shorts and a 30-minute documentary on the films complete this nice package. Talking of which, my only caveat would be the clumsy interior box chosen to house the 3 discs, with a disturbing clash of colours between tray and box. The exterior cardboard protection is quite nicely designed though. All in all a 6 stars collection. If you love cinema, grab it while you can.

52 of 60 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars An utterly essential DVD by one of the greatest directors in the history of the cinema. April 24, 2007

By Jonathan Drake

Format:DVD

This is probably the DVD bargain of 2007; a group of rare films by Jean Renoir, arguably the greatest director the medium has ever known, for under $20. Why these films haven't been available before is anyone's guess, but they constitute a major release for all those who care about the cinema. Buy this DVD set immediately; transfer quality good; an excellent value.

11 of 11 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Review of ''La Marseillaise' November 12, 2007

By S. Ramani

Format:DVD

''La Marseillaise'', Renoir's criminally underrated masterpiece about the French Revolution. The boxset is worth double the price at which it's been sold, just for bearing this underrated classic.

It's unlike any historical film ever made. It's focus is on the particular episodes that lead to the great events. Despite the lack of spectacle and grandstanding that accompanies conventional takes on the subject matter, ''La Marseillaise'' is more entertaining than any of these kind of films. It's one of Renoir's most radical films in it's narrative structure. It has neither plot nor main characters to pivot around. It's anchored above all by Renoir's pacing as well as his legendary ability to shift moods without upsetting the tone.

The tone is light throughout the film until the final battle at the Tuileries between the sans-cullotes and the Swiss Guard who serve Louis XVI. The battle when it arrives is shown in a way that gives it neither excitement or thrill and the silence that it generates seems like an ugliness that is absent in the rest of the film. Even better is the dialogue. Renoir conducted strict, extensive research for this film and the dialogue was largely ''found'' in late 18th Century diaries, pamphlets, notices. The dialogue stresses smells, tastes, air and atmosphere. Like the early scene where the sans-cullotes free a prison and the prisoner remarks about the toxicity within the walls, details that many films are unable to fit in their narratives.

The film's great opening scene is set in the Palace of Versailles after a caption that tells us that it is ''14 July 1789''.... The most famous date of the 18th Century, shows not the fall of Bastille but King Louis XVI, played beautifully by Jean's elder brother, the great theatre actor, Pierre Renoir, being reported the Fall of Bastille in a day of leisure that begins as we sense like any other day at Versailles. Louis XVI, comically shown in his pajamas is completely unprepared for the coming storm.

Through intersecting contrapuntal episodes depicting the rising national consciousness of the French working class and the bourgeosie, Renoir also brings out the unprecedented nature of the French Revolution. It transformed a subject into a citizen, irrespective of social backgrounds, income, lineage ever Frenchman was a child of the country yet it's no paen to patriotism. The French aristocracy refuse to consider themselves as any way connected to the ''citoyennes''. Lesser directors would eal with these themes through grand speeches or facile simplifications of the conflict into an ''oppressed vs. rulers'' scenario which although not untrue is superficial in dealing with THE event of the 18th Century. Renoir's genius is in his ability to show them visually, to do it without pointing out the connections that his images express.

It was made during Renoir's association with the Popular Front. A period which also ''Le Crime de Monsieur Lange'' and ''Le Vie est a Nous''. ''La Marseillaise'' is explicitly left-wing, openly taking the side of the sans-cullotes over the much-sympathized aristocracts who faced the guillotine during the Reign of Terror. The Revolution began long before that unfortunate period in French History and Renoir's strategy emphasizes the time and space between the many simultaneous incidents that build a revolution. This makes his film superior to history textbooks which condenses events chronologically in a manner that leaves the impression that it happened overnight.

Renoir also doesn't focus on the big names of the revolution. Danton, Marat and Robespierre are mentioned but remain absent. The Royal Court, the king, queen and their attendants are the only historical subjects who take part. The characters are fictional Marseillaise who leave their homes to march on to Paris, along the way strengthening their ranks by enlisting their fellow ''damned de la terre'', sharing local delicacies and composing the national anthem of France.

The song becomes part of the theme of the film in the use of the history of its development. Recounted to the letter and spirit of historical record, the song called ''La Marseillaise'' which symbolized one part of France ended up speaking for and about the rest of France. Stressing that the concept of nation lies in finding yourself within your fellow man. The general seeing itself in the particular rather than the other way around.

Is this definition applicable to today's nations across the world? Read more ›

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars For this price??? It's a steal!!! May 25, 2007

By Joshua Beall

Format:DVD

Jean Renoir is one of the (deservedly) acknowledged masters of French cinema, and to get five feature-length films at this price is a steal. Although the films vary in quality, they're still Renoir films, and that's all you need to know.

8 of 9 people found the following review helpful

5.0 out of 5 stars Fascinating Set Including Rare Renoir Silents. October 8, 2008

By Chip Kaufmann

Format:DVD|Amazon Verified Purchase

One of the participants in my silent film course at the local college told me about this set which is the first time I had heard of it. I knew that Jean Renoir had begun his career in the silent era but I didn't know if any of those films still existed. They do and 4 of them are on display here along with his 1938 LA MARSEILLAISE and two works from late in his career. They are THE DOCTOR'S HORRIBLE EXPERIMENT (a surprising Jekyll/Hyde adaptation from 1959) and THE ELUSIVE CORPORAL from 1962 (an early version of THE GREAT ESCAPE). Being a silent film enthusiast, I shall concern myself with the 4 silents.

There are 2 features and 2 short films and all 4 feature Renoir's then wife Catherine Hessling. WHIRLPOOL OF FATE, from 1925, is his first film and tells the story of an orphaned girl, abused by her uncle, who tries to make a life for herself on her own. The second is a lavish adaptation of Emile Zola's NANA made the following year. The 2 short films are quite fanciful offerings with one of them never intended for distribution. There's an adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL from 1928 but the surrealistic 1927 opus CHARLESTON PARADE which was made as a lark with leftover shooting days from NANA defies description. It wasn't shown until the 1960s.

This 3 disc set is being offered by Lionsgate Films (Canada's largest film distributor) and is an incredible bargain at the price. NANA has been beautifully restored with color tints added. WHIRLPOOL OF FATE comes from a 16mm print and is in OK condition but it's great to have this little gem. CHARLESTON PARADE and LITTLE MATCH GIRL are in rougher shape but are quite watchable. That's remarkable for CHARLESTON PARADE which Renoir never intended to distribute.... The title refers to the dance (Josephine Baker was then the talk of the town) but Hessling's "costume" or lack of it along with her uninhibited dancing (an obvious nod to Baker), must be seen to be believed.

Special thanks to Lionsgate for making this set available which is a must for silent film fans everywhere. My only complaint is that there is no musical accompaniment for CHARLESTON PARADE (LITTLE MATCH GIRL has the original 1928 score which consists of classical snippets) but considering how bizarre it is that's really not that surprising. I watched it the second time with 1920s jazz recordings in the background. You get to pick your own. Read more ›