French Cancan (1955)

Jean Renoir’s “French Cancan”

Thematic Elements: 

At the beginning of ‘French Cancan,’ it seems Renoir will make social commentary throughout the film, to which he subverts later into something else. The first scene of the film has Danglard, accompanied by his belly dancing mistress Lola, treat the bankers and aristocrats of Paris to their entertainment club. One of the rich aristocrats claps his hand and calls out ‘slave!’ to which one of the waiters come quickly over. Danglard and the men discuss building a new nightclub, an upper-class club that features lower class concepts, like risqué performances and more debauchery. Renoir seems to be setting up the film to be a commentary on the upper-class’s economic power over people, using this power to make people of economic dependance as slaves. Danglard even says that he is a slave himself, saying that he only put on shows that the financial bakers want. They even go so far as to remove him from his assets and his apartment as they see fit. At the hold of one of the auditions, two of the financers ask what happens to all the girls who get rejected, the other suggesting they could come and work as a laborer in one of their factories. In this way, Renoir is showing us that we are simply performers for the wealthy elite and once we cannot entertain them, we are simply faceless workers, like slaves or cattle. Renoir also seems to suggest that the attachments that come with love is also a form of slavery. Much like the power the aristocrats have over people, both Danglard and Nini throughout the film experience power dynamics that come with love. Danglard has left his mistress Lola for Nini to which Lola experiences jealousy over it. This jealously is used to sabotage Danglard’s production as Lola sleeps with the financial bakers so they can pull funds from Danglard. Lola feels that Danglard should be obedient to her only and punishes him for not staying faithful to her. Danglard, although he has affection for Nini, uses her attraction to him to push her to continue forward with her performance. He takes her from laundry room to stardom and does so by promising economic advancement as well as romantic involvement, thereby exerting power over her to do his bidding. Nina throughout the film is pursued by a poor worker, who believes that because they slept together, she is his wife and therefore belongs to him. She is also chased by a foreign prince who also promises to take her away to his country to be a princess, thus guaranteeing her economic security. Nina decides to forego this economic security in exchange for the show and for her love, Danglard. However, at the end of the film during opening night, whenever she notices that Danglard is interested in another performer, she threatens to quit the show and sabotage his production. He then tells her that they cannot be together because it would make him like a canary in a cage. In this way, he is suggesting that love is a form of slavery, forcing him to ‘perform’ for her as she sees fit. However, in Nina’s decision to let go of this notion of love as well as letting go the promise of economic security in her other potential suitors, Renoir makes the point of his film known. It is in this we find the heart of the film, the ambition and purpose of the entertainer. For Danglard and now Nina (as well as Lola by the end), trifles like love and money mean nothing to a true performer. For these characters now, their sole purpose is to carve out the best possible performances and show for the audience. Renoir sees the social economics of the world to be a self-perpetuating cycle power and control over others and holds no real passion. The film seems to suggest that passion and the joie de vivre of life comes from personal commitment and human endeavor, which for him can be found in the arts and theater. In between the relationships of the story, we see the performers working tirelessly to perfect their craft which is then paid off in their performance on opening night in the final scene of the movie. The scene is one of joy and celebration of life and human passion and hard work as the dancers and the spectators become untethered to any sort of narrative, they forget about the powers of the world, the troubles of relationships, the endless cycle of cruelty in life. They instead are filled with joy as all of them are singing and dancing and are experiencing what the French call, joie de vivre. 

Camerawork: 

Renoir masters the art of color in this film, much like he masters in all his technicolor films. Throughout the film Renoir is trying to evoke late 18th century French society by using his scenes and frames to homage the works of Edgar Degas and the other French impressionists, like his father Pierre-Augustus. All the characters are usually staged in groups in a specific environment, the groups are all performing a function as an expression of the characters inner drive. This staging not only looks like a Degas or impressionist painting but also forces the audience to point out individual actions amongst a collective action; the main characters in the story and how they behave in their environment amongst a collective group or even alone in their environment. This contrast shows how the characters are supposed to be behaving collectively with their peers and how they either are, or how they are not and what that means for their character. 

Best Shot: 

The best shots in the film is one towards the end in which the performers are doing the French cancan on opening night. As before mentioned, Renoir uses shots that show individuals in a collective and how the individual is contrasting to the collective. However, in the final dance of the movie, they are no longer individuals operating on their own selfish needs and wants, exerting power of others. They are now a collective, celebrating their work and their art and using that to express the joy of togetherness and unity.