Product Details

• Actors: Michel Simon, Janie Marčse, Georges Flamant, Roger Gaillard, Romain Bouquet
• Directors: Jean Renoir
• Format: Black & White, Original recording reissued, NTSC
• Language: French
• Subtitles: English
• Rated: NR (Not Rated)
• Number of tapes: 1
• Studio: Kino International
• VHS Release Date: February 5, 2002
• Run Time: 95 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• ASIN: B00005UWBL
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #357,107 in Movies & TV (See Top 100 in Movies & TV)

Editorial Reviews

An ironic, tragicomic account of a déclassé romantic triangle, Renoir's first sound feature stars Michel Simon as Maurice Legrand, mild-mannered cashier, hen-pecked husband and Sunday painter. After rescuing Lulu (Janie Marčze) from a beating by her pimp, Dédé (Georges Flammand), Legrand sets her up as his mistress. Soon, however, to satisfy Dédé, Lulu demands more and more money and even sells Legrand's paintings as her own, posing as an American artist named Clara Wood. Totally obsessed with Lulu, Legrand will do anything to win her love. (Yet when circumstances enable him to break free of his marriage, Legrand arrives at Lulu's apartment only to find her in Dédé's arms). Drawn from a novel by Georges de la Fouchardičre, La Chienne was remade by Fritz Lang in 1945 as Scarlet Street.

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

11 of 12 people found the following review helpful

4.0 out of 5 stars A DOUBLE GEM VIDEO May 11, 2002

By Marc-André Hallé

Format:VHS Tape

This 1931 Renoir movie, made four years after the arrival of the first talking picture, is a very realistic analysis of some aspects of Montmartre way of living, with it's crude dialogue, lightened only by Renoir's naturalistic poetry. Michel Simon gives in this film (and in "L'Atalante") one of his top performances as the constantly humiliated husband who goes painting to support his mistress who exploits him.
"La Chienne" comes with the 1936 short "Une partie de campagne" , a masterpiece of French freshness which reminds us that Jean Renoir is also the son of the impressionist painter Auguste Renoir.
One complaint about this bonus film: dialogue is almost inaudible due to sound parasites.