Open AccessLa bête humaine DVD
Author(s) -
Jan Uhde
Publication year - 2006
Publication title -
kinema
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2562-5764
pISSN - 1192-6252
DOI - 10.15353/kinema.vi.1148
Subject(s) - insanity , realism , art , poetry , set (abstract data type) , humanities , literature , art history , law , political science , computer science , programming language
The phenomenal growth of the DVD medium is seen by many as an excellent opportunity to bring important films of the present and past to audiences worldwide. Among the anxiously awaited issues, long overdue, has been Jean Renoir's 1938 masterpiece La bête humaine, adopted from the eponymous novel by Emile Zola. Set in the closely-knit community of Le Havre's cheminots, or railwaymen, this major work of the French pre-war poetic realism focuses on the gentle engineer Lantier (Jean Gabin) and his tragic struggle with hereditary insanity. The past haunts other characters of the story as well, especially the abused Sévérine (Simone Simon) who, like Thomas Hardy's Tess, is unable to escape her socially pre-determined fateful trajectory....